The Music of Us
by Jump-Off Love
Summary: Syaoran never planned to ask the quiet and shy Sakura Kinomoto to sing as Sleeping Beauty in the upcoming school musical. And Sakura never wanted an annoying flirt following her around. Still, they learn to tolerate each other, and more. Ch13 up!
1. Extra Credit

**The Music Of Us**

**Summary: **Syaoran never planned to ask the quiet and shy Sakura Kinomoto to sing as Sleeping Beauty in the upcoming school musical. And Sakura never wanted an annoying flirt following her around. Still, they learn to tolerate each other, and more. They're the only ones who can...

**Author's Note: **They're a little out of character because this started out as a different anime's fanfic, but no one was reading that anime's fics anymore so I decided to make it CCS. PLEASE read and review.

**Disclaimer: **(Unfortunately) I don't own anything or anyone from Card Captor Sakura.

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**Chapter 1: Extra Credit**

"…And so, considering the fact that your grades are best described as mediocre, I recommend extracurricular activities," the college counselor finished, picking up the sheaf of exam papers in front of her and thumping them on the table. Realizing that her current student hadn't heard a single word, she put the tests down and pushed her spectacles back up her nose.

"Li, are you listening to me?"

The high school senior sitting across from her lazily turned his head to look away from the window. His brown eyes sparkled with amusement, though he was careful to keep his face perfectly straight.

"I'm afraid not, ma'am."

That said, Li Syaoran turned his attentions to the window again, where he could see most of his classmates outside having P.E. And he was supposed to be doing the same, except that his name had been called for the free 30-minute college counseling session all the seniors here were made to attend.

"We're talking about a very serious problem, Li." The counselor had had enough of boys like Syaoran; she'd seen many of the same sort and wasn't about to take any crap from them. She was here to set students on a path, and she intended to do just that. "Your grades were supposed to count for college. And since you've done so much damage already, the only thing you can hope to earn is extra credit in the form of non-academic activities."

"…Mm-hm." He turned to face her again, meeting her gaze squarely. A lot of teachers were intimidated by Syaoran, mostly because he seemed to have absolutely no sense of respect toward them. "And what would you suggest…?"

He wasn't really serious, of course. All he wanted to do was get this over with as soon as possible. Syaoran shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around the office, catching sight of a mirror to his left. He stared at it. An extremely bored teenage boy stared back, his features more than averagely attractive. A shock of chestnut-brown hair fell from the center of his forehead. _It's getting too long, _he thought.

"…chess club, the school newspaper, and of course the drama production that the school puts on every year." The counselor's eyes seemed to light up at that. "I know they're not looking for just performers—they need scriptwriters, and directors, and other technical people."

_I guess I have to do something if I want to continue going to school here,_ Syaoran thought. "I can help with stuff like that. Behind the scenes and all?"

Since it was the first time this kid had shown a little bit of interest in anything she had to say, the counselor felt relief wash over her. _There are no bad students, only bad teachers,_ she told herself rather proudly. "Yes, yes, that's exactly what I mean. And with your social skills, you could really lend a hand to the crew."

Syaoran shrugged. "I guess."

"So, I'll mention it to the teacher in charge, and she'll get the stage crew to contact you A.S.A.P. Okay?" Gloriously happy that she could have a break now, the counselor stood up and clapped Syaoran on the shoulder. The bell rang.

He nodded wordlessly and his face lit up as the door opened to reveal his friends waiting for him. Unaware that the counselor was still talking, Syaoran started walking out.

"I'm sure you have an ambition in life, too, Li, and I know you have it in you to make it work. Just stick to your goals and…" She broke off as the boy ran towards his friends, immediately throwing back his head and laughing freely at something they'd said. The counselor sighed. Why were students so withdrawn around teachers? It was sad.

_Back in my day, I'd have jumped for a chance to get counseling for my future,_ she thought contemptuously, and headed toward the cafeteria.

On their way to the soccer field, Syaoran and his usual group were telling each other stories and jokes. They got to their favorite spot under a cherry blossom tree and spread out four woven mats they'd brought, ready for a picnic lunch.

"So what did your counselor talk to you about, Tomoyo-chan?" Meiling asked. Tomoyo blushed a little. "She said I had nothing to worry about, since my grades were in the top 2 percent of our year and I had sports, so colleges will see me as well rounded."

"Hmmm…" Meiling said. "I don't know what I have…" Her friends laughed—Meiling was always the innocent one; it was hard to think of her starting university like they all would be next year.

"How about you, Syao-kun?" Meiling asked. She knew he wasn't doing too well in school because he didn't really see the point of sitting in a classroom and learning from books all day long.

"Well, I'm going to help out with the drama crew for some extra credit," he announced.

"What? Li Syaoran, taking extra time for school?" Tomoyo teased. Meiling pulled a funny face at him and he threw some bits of grass at her, sticking out his tongue.

"No, but seriously… I have to, if I want to go to the local college like we're all going to," he said. In Hong Kong it wouldn't matter because the college there was easy to get into, but Syaoran knew he wanted to stay here now. Tomoeda was a lot of fun. Besides, the three friends had already agreed that they'd all apply at the local community college so there was a good chance that they'd be together after high school.

Tomoyo lay down in the grass to stare up at the clouds, and the rest of them followed, their heads forming a circle on the picnic mats.

"What if we don't go to the same college?" Tomoyo whispered. "What if we all separate?"

It was the question that they all wanted to ask and that they were all afraid of. Syaoran looked at Meiling and saw that she was getting sad just thinking about stuff like this. She'd always been about living in the present; it was hard for her to accept that there were so many new responsibilities.

And Syaoran was there to make things better, of course. He was her cousin after all, and back in Hong Kong they'd always been together.

"Hey, it doesn't matter," he said, grinning. "We'll still keep in touch and have lunch together like this no matter what, right guys?"

"Right," Meiling said, smiling.

----------------------------

A few hours later Syaoran was at the drama club's meeting, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. They looked a little disorganized until a senior from another class came up to the meeting and yelled at them all to shut up.

"Guys, we don't have much time! We have to start work, and we need more volunteers," he said. "Okay, here… we need three more supporting roles: one boy and two girls. Oh, and we still haven't finished auditioning for the lead role. Don't forget behind the scenes though, we need more lighting people and some people to cue the performers and help all-around…" No one was listening except Syaoran. It was a little funny.

"I'll do that," Syaoran decided to say, stepping out from the shadows. The senior glanced at him a little apprehensively. _Poor guy, _Syaoran thought. _All the meetings are probably like this._

"And you are?"

"Syaoran Li, new assistant director," he said, smiling. For a moment the other guy stared at him, and then grinned back.

"Welcome aboard," he said. "I'm Hiiragizawa Eriol, director… and producer… and everything in between." He sighed. "I guess I'm just the only dedicated one around here, you know?"

Syaoran wanted to tell him that there wasn't much of a chance that he'd be as determined as Eriol, but the senior had already turned back to the rest of the crew. "Listen up, people!" he yelled. "This is Syaoran. Fill him in and give him something to do." With that he left the stage and went to talk to some of the costume managers, and a crowd of people swarmed to surround Syaoran.

"So, we're doing a musical version of Sleeping Beauty…"

"Do you know where I can get good quality emergency lights?..."

"Here's a copy of the script, you'll need it to cue…"

"The leading actress has to have blonde hair, or at least brown hair since there aren't many blondes around here…"

"Blue, or pink?"

"I guess there are lots of things you can do with some old paint and cardboard, but we need a lot of new…"

"…oh, and how about papier-mâché?"

Syaoran held up his hands in surrender, starting to laugh. He caught Eriol's eye, but the other senior just shrugged. So he was on his own. Syaoran took a deep breath and made a 'cut!' motion with his hands, making them all stop talking.

"Okay. First. One by one."

----------------------------

By the end of the meeting Syaoran was ready to kill that counselor that had recommended this certain extracurricular. He'd been pestered all afternoon with questions and he was more tired than he'd ever been on a school day. It didn't help that he'd gotten home at almost 7:00; now there was less time to do the pile of homework he always had.

And, of course, he didn't know what to do about _her. _If she showed up everything would be fine, but if she didn't, Syaoran thought, the musical wouldn't be complete. But of course, if she did say no he couldn't run over and ask again, because that would imply something more than just wanting her to audition…

It had all started when he'd walked up to Eriol and asked if he could do something that would _really_ contribute to the musical, like helping the performers or doing props. He wanted something that the audience could look at and ask, Who did that?

Eriol thought for a moment, and then shook his head. "Props and performing's covered, sorry… oh, but there is something you can do." Syaoran remembered his eyes lighting up.

"Uh-huh, what is it?"

"Well, we've found a couple of girls willing to play Sleeping Beauty, but I don't think any of them are really fit for the part. I'm not saying we should give up on them, but if we can find someone _better_ it would be great."

Syaoran thought. He knew Meiling could dye her hair blonde; she was cute and she'd have fun acting on stage too. He just didn't know if she could sing.

"Well okay, I'll help, but don't count on me."

After his meeting ended, he found Meiling waiting for him outside. Syaoran was glad to see her; it was sweet to wait for him like that after school. "Mei-chan, you sure you don't have to be home already?" he asked as they started to walk out together.

Meiling shook her head. "Not really. I finished my homework while I was waiting for you, anyway. The library's nice when you're the only one there."

Syaoran sighed. "You shouldn't have waited…"

Meiling only laughed, and seeing her smile made him want to do the same. "It's okay, Syaoran-kun, no need to worry about me."

He grinned back, and then remembered that he was supposed to be looking for a girl to play the Sleeping Beauty part. "Oy, Meiling-chan, would you be interested in joining the musical?"

"Hmm? As what?"

"As Sleeping Beauty."

Meiling slowly smiled, liking the idea the more she thought about it. "Oh, it might be fun!" she said, and Syaoran knew she wasn't the type to have stage fright. "Umm… You don't need _really_ good actresses right?"

"Right," he said, nodding. "And we don't need really good singers, either."

"Singers?" Her smile faded. "I have to sing?"

"Well, yeah, it's a musical."

"Oh, yeah, I just… didn't think I'd have to sing…"

"Of course you have to. But it's okay, the songs are easy to learn and—"

"No, no, I don't think you'll want me to be Sleeping Beauty if I have to sing," Meiling said nervously. "I might ruin your musical!"

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad…"

"Trust me, it is. Tomoyo can sing, why don't you ask her?"

"Sleeping Beauty has to have blonde hair. Or at least brown hair."

"Now that's just unfair…"

"It wasn't my choice!" He laughed, but he was starting to worry. He'd seen the girls who had already auditioned for Sleeping Beauty, and they weren't anything remotely close to 'beautiful', which was why he'd wanted one of his friends to do it. But now that that plan was ruined…

"Then who else do you think I should ask?" he asked Meiling. They were walking up to her house now, and he leaned against her gate after she closed it behind her.

Meiling thought a little bit. "Hmm…well, I'll ask Tomoyo-chan if she knows anyone with blonde hair who can sing, but for now, maybe you should just buy Tomoyo a wig."

Syaoran shrugged. "She might not have time to practice for the musical, since she's busy getting high grades and doing all her other activities."

"Ah, don't worry, I'll try and find you someone," Meiling said, smiling. "Go home and do your homework now, and don't forget the Math test tomorrow."

Syaoran smiled, waved goodbye, and then continued down the road. His house was just two blocks away, but today he decided to take the long way around the small childrens' park nearby. There weren't any kids playing there right now, and Syaoran had the swings to himself. He sat down and opened his school backpack, taking out a textbook. _I might as well do my homework here._

Syaoran hated school, but he could be good at Math when he wanted to be. He'd worked his way through 20 problems and was starting to review for the quiz tomorrow when he realized it was getting a little cold. Putting his books back in his bag, he started walking home.

_Wait, this isn't right, I've walked two blocks and I still don't see my street._

_There is no way I can be lost. _

_That's just… pathetic of me._

He checked all the street signs. Usually his street was two blocks from the park, but maybe it was different because he'd gone left around the park's block instead of right… _Li, what have you gotten yourself into now?_

Syaoran decided that walking on was better than staying here and waiting for night to come, so he continued. He'd gone a few blocks when the road curved right without any other way to go. Syaoran followed, knowing his house was supposed to be to the right anyway. But as he walked on in complete silence save for his footsteps on the road, he noticed there were less houses and more trees. This was the part of their suburb where there were still a lot of vacant lots.

_Maybe I should ring a doorbell and ask for directions._

…_Nah. I'll find home, it's easy. I've done most of the homework already. The rest is just reading assignments and—_

He stopped.

_What was that, just now?  
I swear I heard… singing._

The silence made him feel uncomfortable, so he started walking again. Then there, a little to his left—

_**Far away, long ago, glowing dim as an ember…**_

Her voice was sweet and pure, cutting through the silence like crystal. Hearing it made him feel like he was going down a rollercoaster drop, or seeing something wonderful like New Year's Eve fireworks.

_**Things my heart used to know…**_

To his left a small gate opened onto a garden path lined with flowers. He stopped for a moment, wondering if he'd get caught trespassing, and then decided that it was worth it. Syaoran pushed open the gate, walked up the path, and stopped when he saw the house.

_**Things it used to remember...**_

Her voice stopped for a moment but he knew it was just a pause in the song. Syaoran walked up to the one-floor house in front of him and placed one hand on its ivy-covered wall as he bent to look behind it.

_**And a song…**_

**_  
_**Behind the house was Kinomoto Sakura, sitting in the shade of a tree in her garden and singing.

_**Someone sings…**_

Seeing her there in a loose everyday sundress with her light brown curls tumbling down around her face and her green eyes dreamy with flights of fancy made Syaoran stop in his tracks. This wasn't the cold, quiet girl he saw sitting in the back of the classroom every day. And her voice…

_**Once upon a December.**_

Her song ended and she sat there with one hand on a forgotten textbook. Syaoran found himself wishing that someone would come along and paint her, or write a poem, or just… do something that could capture _this _Kinomoto Sakura, in _this_ moment.

The moment didn't last very long.

"What-what are you doing here!"

Her shriek seemed to jerk him awake from whatever had come over him in those few seconds, and Syaoran shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around casually.

"Hey, Sakura-chan."

"Get out of my backyard, now. I can… charge you with trespassing in just a few seconds, so get out!"

Syaoran was an expert at being calmly infuriating.

"What, is that any way to treat a classmate and friend?" he asked, his eyes drifting to the back door of her house.

Sakura snorted. "Friend? I think this is the longest conversation we've had in years." She stood. One hand went to her hip, the other pointed to the street. "And it's about to end. Get out."

Syaoran shook his head.

"What does that mean?"

He shrugged.

She made a strangled frustrated noise in her throat and then stomped over to the back door. "Fine, just stay there and wait for it to get dark." As soon as she was inside, Syaoran counted to 10 and then followed her in. He passed through a small but well cared-for kitchen, and then found Sakura in her living room, cleaning up some stuff in the foyer.

She turned around and was furious to see him. "First trespassing, now breaking and entering. Get out of my house, Li!"

"I didn't break anything…" he said, trailing off when he saw an open door showing Touya's room and a closed door probably leading to her bedroom. He reached for the knob, but in four steps Sakura was in front of him, blocking his way.

"What's in there?"

"My bedroom."

"Then why can't I see?"

"…"

"What's in there?"

"None of your business."

Syaoran nodded slowly and then walked into her brother's room, ignoring Touya's bed and desk in the center of the room. He went up to the bookshelf and started reading some titles. He was lucky that Sakura's older brother wasn't actually home. Touya was known to be very protective of his sister.

"What do you want, Syaoran!"

Syaoran turned to face her. Sakura looked annoyed to the point of being desperate. He'd have to be careful, because this wasn't just an ordinary girl, right? _A Card Captor…_

"What was that song?"

Sakura frowned. "Huh?"

"That song you were singing. You've got an incredible voice."

She blushed deeply and looked away, but he could tell she liked it. Syaoran was good at flattering people. Especially girls, since he found it easy to flirt, too.

"I… it… it's from an old cartoon, Anastasia. I like the soundtrack a lot, even if it's been years since they showed that movie."

Syaoran nodded. "You know, you should sing."

"I _was_ singing."

"No, I mean in public. You should sing in front of people… like in the musical they have every year."

Sakura's face darkened. "It's not my thing."

Syaoran wasn't going to give up that easily. "Oh come on, Sakura, I don't understand why anyone with so much talent would want to hide it. You'd be the star of the show." _And I actually meant that, _he thought, a little surprised at himself.

"I don't do performances, okay, Li?"

"Do you have stage fright?"

"No!"

"Then why—"

"Because I just don't like people talking about me, okay?" she snapped. "What are you, a talent agent?"

"I got assigned to find someone either blonde- or brown-haired to play Sleeping Beauty in the musical," Syaoran said. "All you would have to do is sing 3 songs and the finale. And pretend to sleep, of course." Now that he was talking to her up close, he saw how pretty she was. No one really took a second look at Sakura, because she didn't exactly like to talk in class.

_She's perfect for this, _he realized. And though he still wasn't sure if her beautiful voice hadn't been just a dream, Syaoran decided they needed Sakura. He had a hunch that she could act. She was even acting now, pretending that she wasn't interested.

"I told you, I don't like getting attention I don't need," she said, crossing her arms. "Now get out of my house."

He sighed. "Sakura, please, won't you at least think about it?"

_There, I said please, now come on, just say yes because you _are_ perfect for this._

Her face softened a little, but then she scowled again. "Get out! I'm really going to call the police."

Syaoran grinned and went out her front door with his hands over his head, pretending to be a robber. "I surrender!" he said. _Maybe Tomoyo will find someone to do it. It'll be okay, _he thought, but he felt more disappointed than he'd ever admit.

Sakura waited until he was outside the gate and walked there to make sure that he wouldn't just enter through her back door again. She closed the gate behind him and locked it with a scowl.

"Your street is a few blocks away. Turn right and then right again, and then walk for a block and you should find it."

"Thank you." He waved and started going in the direction she pointed to, noting that he was getting a little tired from walking all over the village all day. He was almost at the turn when he heard her.

"Syaoran-kun?"

"Yes?" He turned to see her still at the gate, looking down.

"I…"

He waited.

"I'll think about it."

With that, Sakura turned and ran back to her house, slamming the door behind her. Syaoran waited until he heard no more footsteps, and then shook his head, smiling.

_I knew she'd give in,_ he thought, starting to whistle to himself. He'd known Sakura since he found out she was a Card Captor in fourth grade, and a person with that much dedication to capturing all the Clow Cards couldn't be that bad. Sakura knew what it was like to have a special gift, and Syaoran thought that inside, she wanted to show the world what she could do. She was that kind of girl.

Which was why he wasn't at all surprised when she _did_ turn up at the drama club meeting the next day.

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**Liked it? If you did, or if you didn't, please review and keep me happy:D  
**


	2. Disaster

**THANK YOU for the reviews! I didn't expect 6 in a day, so TY again:D Yes, there will be a little of the cards in this story, but later on...

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**Chapter 2: Disaster**

_This is not happening._

Kinomoto Sakura put her hands on her knees and used every ounce of willpower she possessed to keep herself from jumping up and running out of the auditorium. She stared straight ahead with her back rigid, earning herself strange looks from the other girls auditioning for Sleeping Beauty,

Beside her, Syaoran took one hand from behind his head and put it on her shoulder.

"You nervous?"

It was kind of nice that he noticed she was having a hard time. As far as Sakura was concerned this was the stupidest thing she'd ever done in her entire life, so she'd need all the encouragement she could get.

"Syaoran-kun?"

He smiled. "Yes?"

"You're touching me."

It was kind of annoying that no matter how mean or sarcastic she tried to be, all he did was laugh and shake his head. Syaoran seemed to be very patient. Sakura was not. She wanted to sing her part and then get out of here as fast as she could.

Wait, no, she didn't want to sing at all.

"Kinomoto Sakura?"

Syaoran stood and held out a hand. "That's your cue."

Normally she'd have given him a contemptuous glare and stood up on her own, but Sakura suddenly felt her knees grow weak with nervousness. She reached out to grab his wrist for support—

—and then almost fell out of her seat when he tucked his hand back into his pocket and turned away. Sakura glared at the back of his head and followed him up the steps to the stage. Syaoran handed some sheets of music to the pianist and then retreated backstage to her left, grinning.

And she was alone on the stage with everyone staring at her.

Yesterday…

"_Why, do you have stage fright?"_

"_No."_

That was a lie, and not a very good one. Sakura heard the first few bars of her chosen song being played, and then there were only a few beats left before she had to jump in…

_I can't do this, I can't, it'll be all over the school, I'll mess up, I'll forget the lyrics, I'll hit a bad note, I'll trip over this never-ending wiring, I'll be the laughingstock of the drama club and they'll all say "Oh, why did she ever audition in the first place?" all because of that Li getting into my head and making me think that I could actually get up here, stand up here, crap, this is not helping, and he's… he's…_

She whipped her head to look left and saw him talking to the person beside him and laughing. Then she saw him see her looking at him. Any other backstabber caught in the act would be at least a little embarrassed, but Syaoran stared her straight in the eye and smirked.

_He's laughing at me!_

_There is no way I am letting Syaoran laugh. I've got to...  
_

_**When you get caught in the rain**_

_**With nowhere to run**_

She let her voice work and squeezed her eyes shut; when she opened them she saw there were only about 2 people actually listening to her. She liked it better that way.

_**When you're distraught and in pain**_

_**Without anyone**_

It was much better to keep her eyes closed because she could pretend that she was at home using karaoke tracks on the computer.

_**When you keep crying out to be saved**_

_**But nobody comes**_

_**And you feel so far away**_

_**That you just can't find your way home**_

Sakura was getting the hang of this. She opened her eyes and saw that Syaoran had walked down to the audience and was watching her like she'd just scored perfect on the SAT's. She looked around and saw the same admiration in everyone's faces.

_**You can get there alone, it's okay**_

_**What you say is…**_

Syaoran smiled to himself, as if to say, 'I knew it'.

_**I can make it through the rain**_

_**I can stand up once again**_

_**On my own and I know **_

_**That I'm strong enough to mend**_

_**And every time I feel afraid**_

_**I hold tighter to my faith**_

_**And I live one more day**_

_**And I make it through the rain**_

They'd cut the song a bit because if she sang the whole thing it would take up too much time, and they only had a few minutes of lunch time to use the auditorium because the 6th graders were having a puppet show or something next period.

_Here goes,_ Sakura thought.

_**And when the wind blows **_

_**And shadows grow close**_

_**Don't be afraid**_

_**There's nothing you can't face**_

Syaoran's expression softened and when Sakura saw it she wanted to blush—his eyes showed that he was looking at something beautiful, that he was… touched.

_Touched in the head, more like it._

_**And should they tell you **_

_**You'll never pull through**_

_**Don't hesitate**_

_**Stand tall and say**_

Her voice filled the auditorium and the other auditioning girls seemed to shrink back in their seats, realizing that Sakura's voice could be much, much better than theirs. Sakura didn't let herself think, because if she did she would chicken out.

_**I can make it through the rain**_

_**I can stand up once again**_

_**On my own, and I know**_

_**That I'm strong enough to mend**_

_**And every time I feel afraid**_

_**I hold tighter to my faith**_

_**And I live one more day**_

_**And I make it through the rain—**_

Eriol put a hand on Syaoran's shoulder and said something, shaking his head in amazement. Syaoran grinned back.

_**I can make it through the rain**_

_**And stand up once again**_

_**And I live one more day**_

_**And I make it through the rain**_

She drew out the last note and felt as if it was pulling the audience along with her. Then at last, softly, perfectly, the song ended.

No one breathed, no one said a word. Sakura's face grew hot.

"Right," she mumbled. "Through the rain, by Mariah Carey."

There was a short silence, and then—

"Where have you been hiding!" Eriol said, half-laughing in disbelief. As soon as he spoke, the drama club started clapping. It wasn't thunderous, and there were no screams or cheers, but for the first time Sakura was being applauded, and it felt good.

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"…Oh my God, you were great, Eriol loved you and gave you the part right there, the props director somehow got it into his head to ask you to marry him, and I had no idea we had an actual star in the making here!"

Walking backwards in front of her, Syaoran was thrilled to the point of being ridiculously flattering. He'd wanted to walk home with her because his friends all lived nearer the school anyway.

"So anyway, there's practice every day except Thursday. You just have to be there tomorrow at the auditorium. I'm going to be behind the scenes helping them set up some new props, but you have to go meet with the cast yourself."

"The cast? Who else…?"

"The girl playing the evil fairy… king and queen… fairy godmothers… didn't you ever read Sleeping Beauty?"

"All I know is that she wakes up because of some kiss and then she marries the prince."

Syaoran shook his head. "That's just sad, don't tell me you never read fairytales? Beauty and the Beast? Cinderella?"

"Stop making it sound like I had an abused childhood. We didn't read fairytales." She looked away, thinking of the various adventures she'd had to go through to capture Clow Cards. "We'd probably end up making our own."

They were almost at her house now.

"Sakura-chan—"

"Don't come in my house, Li-kun." He laughed back. She'd caught him.

"Why nooot?" he whined like a little kid. "Can't I have a snack or something?"

"You have homework?"

"Yes, but—"

"Then go do it and stop bothering me."

He laughed again. She was never really serious about telling him to go away, probably because she could never _make_ him go away. He'd followed her around a little at lunch and between classes, because he found her interesting.

Yeah. Kinomoto Sakura, the outcast. Some people didn't even know she existed, and this… this particularly annoying 'cool kid' decided to find her _interesting._

"So you have your costume, right?"

"Yeah." Eriol had already given her the princess costume she was supposed to wear, because it would probably be lost by the end of the week with all the props and decorations being made backstage. Syaoran and the others had decided on a pink dress because they had more of the pink fabric. It was every little girl's dream princess gown with an off shoulder bodice, long smooth sleeves, and an extremely puffy skirt.

To Sakura it was a nightmare solidified. She hated big dresses like this, and even as a Card Captor she tried to wear clothes that were simple so she could move freely. _How are people supposed to breathe in this thing! _had been her first thought when Eriol made her try it on. It had been hot and stuffy backstage and Sakura vaguely remembered being very close to flying into a blind rage and blowing up the whole place.

But of course, she had to wear it, because she was going to be Sleeping Beauty.

_I'm liking the idea less and less._

She knew Syaoran didn't know she was thinking all this, of course. She'd always been good at keeping her emotions hidden, and he never really noticed how she felt because he was so caught up in being the brainless lazy flirtatious slacker that he always was.

"See you tomorrow then?"

She turned and looked at him, _really_ looked at him. _Maybe I'm the one not noticing, _she thought, seeing that Syaoran's face was eager and openly friendly. …_He finds it so easy to talk to people, to make people feel good._

"Yeah, I'll be there," she said, smiling a genuine smile. Syaoran gave her a little wave and then started walking home, hands in his pockets. Sakura didn't stay to stare after him, but she had to admit it was nice to have a friend for once.

------------------------------------

Being in the drama club was weird.

That was Sakura's first conclusion as she stepped into the hallway of their high school and actually saw people taking the time to smile and greet her. She recognized some of the kids from the audition, but the others had been backstage when she was singing, how did they know she was playing the part now?

Of course, those questions in her head disappeared as she rounded the corner and saw it.

Tacked up on the wall of her homeroom classroom was a giant, hideous, blindingly brightly-colored poster with a badly drawn imitation of the Sleeping Beauty cartoon. "SLEEPING BEAUTY MUSICAL" was printed across the top of the poster, and "By the Drama Club" had been hastily scribbled in the lower right corner. And there on the left side in big red-orange letters for the whole school to see—"Starring Kinomoto Sakura".

A few minutes went by as she stared blankly at that banner across the hallway from her.

_This is bad. _

_Very bad._

She was about to sidle alongside the row of lockers and make her way to the classroom door without anyone else seeing her when she heard them. Two girls, probably a year younger than her (and definitely a lot noisier) were giggling to each other in front of the banner, pointing at the cast list on the left and whispering.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, her heartbeat quickening as it always did when she was embarrassed. She had to stop this. If the whole school was whispering about her and saying bad things, it wasn't worth it to join the stupid musical; who cared about showing her talent to the world and all that crap Syaoran had shoved in her brain?

"…yes, he's the _Assistant Director, _can you believe that?"

Sakura stopped. She'd been getting ready to rip that poster off the wall and grind it to pieces under the heels of her shoes, but they were talking about a "he"… Eriol? No, Eriol was the Director, so the Assistant Director must be…

"Do you think Syaoran-kun will notice me if I try out for one of the extra parts? There's a scene where all of them are singing and maybe if I'm good enough…"

_They're talking about Syaoran, _Sakura realized. Then she heard their next sentence.

"Nah, he's so busy going around with that Kinomoto girl. He walked with her all day yesterday, you know. He says he's helping her rehearse."

It took a moment for her to understand it fully, but when she did her eyes widened and she had to stop herself from laughing or gagging (she didn't know which). _They're actually jealous of me?_

"Why does he need to? She's got a great voice! She doesn't need a guy like him, and besides, he doesn't really listen to much Broadway music, so how will he help?"

"I know, it's weird. I mean, why her? She never even talks in class, and last year there were rumors about… _strange_ things she was involved in, if you know what I mean."

Sakura stiffened, and then turned and walked the other way. If the whole school wanted to wonder why Syaoran was spending his free time with her, she didn't care.

_Besides, _she thought, _Li's not too bad. _

Immediately after that thought, images of Syaoran knocking over books and decorations, bringing dirt into her house, annoying her brother, and talking nonstop until her head ached came to mind.

_Hah, not too bad? Sure._

Sakura reached her locker and was about to open it and put books in when she realized she'd forgotten the combination. Groaning inwardly, she looked around for the janitor who had a key that could open all the lockers, but he was nowhere in sight.

"Need help, Sakura-chan?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin, and then glared when she saw it was Syaoran. He had his annoying face on, the one that implied that he knew more than her. "No, I'll just find the janitor…"

Syaoran sighed and fished a key out of his pocket, sticking it into the emergency keyhole. "No need to thank me," he said as the lock popped open.

"I wasn't going to thank you," Sakura snapped. "Where'd you get the master key anyway?"

Syaoran shrugged. "I have my sources." He grinned when he saw Sakura's disgusted expression, and then insisted on following her as she started walking down the hallway.

The two of them reached their classroom and Sakura saw that her usual back desk was taken. There was one in the middle of the room, where the teacher's eyes usually drifted to, and she groaned mentally as she started walking up the aisle to that desk. The only other vacant seat a few rows back was known to have uneven legs, and she just wasn't in the mood to put up with a broken chair just now.

Then Sakura felt something warm bang against her ankle, and the next thing she knew she was on the floor with her books irreversibly bent under her. A wave of well-hidden giggles swept through the class, and Sakura got up, cheeks burning.

_When I get my hands on that Syaoran I'm going to—_

She turned and saw him all the way at the back of the classroom, arms folded. He was looking straight at the girl sitting to her right, and then she knew that it wasn't he who'd tripped her. Picking up her books, Sakura went to sit down and kept her eyes down for the entire period, even when the teacher called her.

Before this whole musical thing, people hadn't even known her name. But at least it was better than being gaped at.

A few minutes Sakura looked away from the window to see Syaoran leaning forward in his chair, eyes narrowed slightly with concentration at the girl directly in front of him—the one who'd tripped her awhile ago. Turning away from the teacher, she tried to catch his attention so she could tell him to stop whatever he was planning right now.

But it was too late. Syaoran frowned straight ahead for a full four seconds, and then he smiled and leaned back. Sakura saw a small black object crawl up her back from where Syaoran's hands had been. In a few seconds the girl screamed, loud and shrill, waking up everyone who was slouching half-asleep in their desk chairs.

"Get it off get it off get it off get it ooaaahhhhhhh!"

The girl jumped to her feet, grabbed her notebook, and swiped it against her head several times, almost on the verge of tears. The teacher looked on curiously, and Sakura's classmates whispered among themselves. Finally she seemed to calm down, and slumped in her chair wailing things like, "It was horrible!" and "It-it-went on my _hair!_"

The girl's seatmate leaned down and peered at the black dot on the floor. His eyes widened, and then suddenly he burst out laughing.

"It's only a spider!"

The class erupted in laughter, glad to have something exciting happen just then. None of them saw Sakura staring at Syaoran, who was snickering with his arms folded across his chest. After a while she shook her head, amazed at how childish he could be, but a small smile made its way onto her face.

-----------------------

"Kinomoto-san, did you bring your costume today?"

Sakura looked up from her locker to see one of the girls she'd heard talking in front of the poster. She nodded slowly. The dress was in her backpack folded up, since Sakura had been planning to leave it in her locker or something instead of having the hideous thing in her room.

"Thank God! I forgot to get your number from the school directory last night to call you. Could you wear the dress to practice later on, please?"

"A dress rehearsal this early?" Sakura asked.

"No, the art club's going to help us do adjustments on everyone's costumes. You mentioned it was a little uncomfortable around the elbows…?"

_And the shoulders, and the waist, and the chest, and everywhere else. _"Oh… yes."

"So we're going to pin up some parts of the dress and then sew in a few seams that we'll rip out after the musical. Sorry you have to wear it, but it's the only way we'll know how it fits." The girl grinned. "It'll be like a costume party, anyway."

Sakura nodded. "Okay." There was nothing else to say.

The girl turned to leave, and then stopped and smiled again. "By the way, I'm Ami," she said, bringing her right hand up.

Thinking she was supposed to shake it, Sakura reached out for Ami's hand, and then stood dumbfounded as the girl ran her fingers through her hair instead, leaving Sakura with her hand in front of her like an idiot.

Ami grinned. "See you later."

---------------------------

As soon as school ended Sakura went and hid in the bathroom nearest the Auditorium, fishing the silky layers of cloth out of her bag. She made a face at it and thought that she would be glad to stuff it down the toilet, but it couldn't be helped—she took off her school uniform and pulled the dress over her head, ignoring the itchy fabric and the way the sleeves fit her like a second skin. A very hot and sweat-inducing second skin, that is.

She put her uniform skirt and blouse into her backpack, ready to be jumped into when she took the dress off, and came out of the bathroom cubicle, setting her bag down on the sink. She stepped back a little, took a good long look at herself in the mirror, and _almost _smiled.

…Okay, okay, if she hadn't cared about the increasingly annoying feel of it against her skin, she'd have said that this dress was… amazing. Held up on a hanger it looked goofy and over-the-top, but when she was actually wearing it…

Breadths of pale pink silk—_low-quality_ silk, Sakura reminded herself, but still silk—cascaded down from her waist, overlapping each other in leaf-shaped pieces to rest on top of the stiffer white skirt underneath. White lace was sewn around the off-shoulder cut and her cuffs, adding elegance to the simple pink long-sleeved bodice.

And for the final touch… Sakura reached into the pocket of her backpack and brought out a crown of paper roses. Sleeping Beauty wasn't supposed to have a tiara, because no one was supposed to know she was a princess. (She'd borrowed an old book of fairytales from the library that lunch time since Syaoran had made fun of her yesterday.)

Wearing this costume, Sakura decided that she was almost glad to get up on stage and perform in front of the whole school.

…Almost.

She took a deep breath and then walked out of the room, holding her bag's strap in her hand. Backpacks didn't go with princess dresses. On her way to the auditorium she passed a janitor, who looked at her strangely, but Sakura shrugged it off. He'd see the others' costumes too, later on; she was still a bit early.

She realized she was a little excited to show the others her dress, simply because it looked so good. She actually wanted someone to say something nice about her… she wanted… _attention, _Sakura thought. _Something must be wrong with me right now._

With that growing eagerness and a shy smile on her face, Sakura pushed open the door of the auditorium, stepped inside, and froze, letting the door bang closed behind her.

Each and every member of the drama club turned to look at her with questions in their expressions, whispers on their lips, and… and…

_Normal school uniforms._

It took a second for Sakura to realize that she'd been tricked. Her cheeks flamed long before she knew Ami had set her up. The other members of the drama club hid smiles behind their hands, but she could hear them trying to hold in their laughter.

Sakura felt herself shaking. Never in her life had she embarrassed herself like this, drawing so many stares to herself like this. It felt horrible, disastrous, like she'd been grounded for a month.

And never in her life had she felt this weak.

_I was so stupid, _she thought, clenching her fists. _I _am_ so, so stupid._

She was surprised when Ami came up to her, concern on her face but laughter in her eyes. Sakura wanted to slap the girl. "Oh, Kinomoto-san, we don't need to wear the costumes until _dress rehearsal,_" she said gently. Someone behind Sakura guffawed.

"Kinomoto! It's not Halloween yet!" a boy shouted from the props team.

"Or were those the only clean clothes you had?" one of the extras snickered. One by one the members of the drama club started laughing, throwing out snide comments and suggestions. Sakura wished she could turn back time and run as far away from the auditorium as she could.

Surrounded by laughter, she took a wild look around the auditorium through eyes blurring with tears, and noticed that Eriol and Syaoran weren't there. Sakura turned and ran for the door only to trip over the backpack she was dragging around. The laughs grew louder and seemed to crash against her ears, but when she looked up at Ami the other girl simply smirked.

Her shoe was tangled in the backpack strap. Sakura wrestled it out, accidentally lifting her dress above her legs as she did so. Some of the boys in the back hooted wildly. Biting her lip till it bled, she stumbled to her feet again just as Ami stepped forward ready to say something else. Sakura was suddenly aware that she didn't know anyone else here except Eriol and Syaoran.

_They're all against me, _she thought, angrily brushing away the tears that started to fall.

"Aww, she's crying!" Ami said. That was the last straw. Sakura wiped at her cheek and then glared fiercely at the girl, clenching her fists as she got ready to slap that smirk off Ami's face. Fortunately, it never happened.

"What the hell is going on!"

The drama club fell silent, looking down at the floor. Ami closed her mouth and retreated behind a few of her friends, becoming just one of the crowd. And Sakura turned to see Li Syaoran making his way across the auditorium.

For a moment he looked at her blankly, clearly not recognizing her, and then his eyes grew wide.

_Not him, too,_ Sakura thought furiously, her eyes daring him to say something. But she sure didn't expect him to turn back to the rest of the drama club, his voice icy.

"Why is Kinomoto wearing her costume?"

Ami was all the way in the back, but everyone heard her clearly. "I don't know," she said. Her voice was challenging, telling Syaoran there was no way in hell she was scared of him. "But… it sure looks pretty… stupid, honestly." She choked back a laugh and someone else giggled out loud, but they didn't see who.

Sakura was staring at the floor now, trying unsuccessfully to stop herself from crying. If she'd looked up she'd have seen Syaoran's fists tighten and then relax. He walked over to her and put a hand on her left shoulder, and for once she didn't push him away.

Syaoran led Sakura out of the auditorium, even opening the door for her. As it began to close behind them and as Sakura sat against the wall and let the tears come hot and fast, he turned around to face Ami and the others.

"I think it looks beautiful," he said fiercely.

The door slammed shut, and Syaoran sat beside Sakura and waited for her to finish crying.

* * *

**Liked it? Anyway, next chapter might not be out for a while because I'm starting school and I won't have as much time to write. Review please!**  



	3. Hoping

**Thanks again for the reviews, they made me happy:D **

** Well, here's chapter 3. It's shorter than the rest and it won't make the plot go forward that much, but it's cute anyway. _These words are either flashbacks or song parts. _**_These words are thoughts. _These words are normal narration.

**School is starting tomorrow and I have a feeling it will take a long time for chapter 4 to come out... Gomenasai!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Hoping**

Syaoran was thinking.

And that was unusual for him, because most days he didn't take the time to stop and think _hard_ like he was doing now. He was more of the type to sit in a corner with some friends trying to put off studying as long as he could.

But today, he was thinking, and he was thinking so hard that he was confused. Li Syaoran was not easily confused.

"Li-san!"

He looked up into the puzzled faces of the props crew. "So do we go with this design, or is it too simple?"

_Damn it, you guys are the props people, you should know! I don't know anything about art! _"Umm, it's fine. It's only coming out in one scene anyway."

"But it's the _tower_ scene," a girl said. He didn't remember her name. That was happening a lot nowadays. "It's the most important scene in the musical!"

"It's okay," Syaoran said, his mind already on other things. "The audience will be watching the performers, they won't be paying attention to the decor." He poked his index finger into the sample pattern they had made for the tower furniture. "This is great. I need to finish up with the extras, so if you'll excuse me…"

He walked away from the props people, hands in his pockets. That was a lie. He didn't really need to talk to the extras, and he sure as hell didn't want to, since Ami was one of them. _Ami… _Syaoran's fists tightened, and he fought down the urge to kick something. What had _possessed_ that girl to humiliate Sakura so badly? Everyone knew Kinomoto didn't like being stared at.

_Still, you didn't have to go rushing in like Prince Charming, _a nasty little voice in his head told him. _Honestly, are you happy that the whole drama club is talking about you and her now because of yesterday? _

_I don't care,_ he thought resolutely, but he wasn't too sure.

"Syao-kun, there you are!"

He turned, surprised to see Meiling and Tomoyo standing in front of him. "Meiling… what are you doing here?"

Tomoyo raised an eyebrow, while Meiling simply smiled and cocked her head to the left. "We're just visiting, to see why you actually stick around here…" She trailed off, catching sight of one of the crepe paper roses the props people had made for Sleeping Beauty's bouquet. "Oooh, these are pretty!"

Meiling started playing with the roses and Syaoran ran over. "No, wait, those can get unraveled easily…" He stopped. _It's like she's the one being me. _Tomoyo snickered at him.

Sighing, he walked down the stairs to where the audience seats were, and sat with his hands behind his head. Tomoyo followed him. "So what's up, Syao-kun?"

"What's up?" He scowled at the ceiling. "Well, let's see, I have a group of extras who are too lazy to practice, a props crew who ask me about _every single _pattern they design, a head director who's twice as busy as I am so he doesn't have time to answer my questions, and a Sleeping Beauty who might not play the part after all."

"Eh? Kinomoto-san might not be Sleeping Beauty?" Meiling had come down the stairs to listen, one of the crepe paper roses tucked behind her ear. "What happened, Syao-kun?"

What happened? It was a long story, Syaoran thought.

**_He'd waited until she was finished crying before trying to talk to her. Now Sakura sat with her head tilted back, leaning against the wall for support. The pink princess dress lay crumpled around her._**

"**_Ami lied and told me I had to wear this to practice," she said dully. Syaoran stared at the ground, anger rising, but Sakura didn't seem to care anymore. _**

"_**Maybe I shouldn't try," she said. "I'll probably get stage fright anyway."**_

**_Syaoran sighed. "Listen, I won't blame you if you decide to stop going to practice."_**

**_Sakura looked straight at him. "You won't?" The gratitude in her eyes was unmistakable._**

"Someone pulled a dirty prank on her," Syaoran said to his friends, trying to act like he didn't care. Meiling looked at him confused, and Tomoyo said tentatively, "That's all?"

"What do you mean, 'that's all'?" he snapped. "It was bad. Really bad. Meiling, you know how Sakura hates being laughed at."

Meiling shrugged. "I dunno, I mean, if she really wanted to play the part, she wouldn't let a bunch of mean people stop her, would she?"

"That's just it." Syaoran remembered the Kinomoto Sakura he'd seen in the middle of the auditorium, for once the complete opposite of cool and composed. The look she'd given him when he came in had been full of pleading. "I don't even think she wants to play the part."

Meiling and Tomoyo looked at Syaoran, and then at each other, deciding that maybe this wasn't the best time to hang out. "Well… we'll see you later, Syao-kun," Tomoyo said as they stood. He didn't even watch them go.

"**_Why the hell do you want to pick on her?" Syaoran said, almost shouting at Ami in front of him. Sakura had gone home, taking the dress with her. _**

**_The girl shrugged infuriatingly in the same way he liked to do. "That Kinomoto is too full of herself," she said decisively. "Come on, it was just a prank. I've done it to four other kids before."_**

" '**_That Kinomoto', as you so charmingly put it, has a phobia of being embarrassed," he hissed. "I don't know about you, but what I saw when she looked up at me was trauma. Intense trauma."_**

_**Ami's face twisted into a glare. "Whatever! What do you care, anyway! That girl has never been nice to anyone in the whole school; she sure doesn't deserve your special treatment!"**_

"_**She's the lead—"**_

"_**No, you know what, just because she's so great at singing doesn't mean you have to be her personal bodyguard!" Ami suddenly smirked. "You do know that the whole school is wondering why you're being so nice to her. She's pretty cute and all, but do you really want a girl like that?"**_

"**_I-I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "I'm being nice because I was the one who found her for the Sleeping Beauty part, and it's going to take a lot to keep her playing the part. You just made it harder. We'll be lucky if Kinomoto-san ever comes back."_**

"**_Li-kun, we have singers. Good singers. We don't need her!" She looked frustrated now, as if she was talking to a four-year-old kid who didn't want to listen. "So what if she doesn't come back?"_**

"**_It's not just the singing." Syaoran took a deep breath. "You don't understand."_**

"**_Oh, and you do, being the absolute expert on theatre all of a sudden? If the counselor hadn't told you to get into extracurriculars, you'd never be here as the 'assistant director'," Ami scoffed. Syaoran knew it was true._**

"**_Just leave her alone, Ami," he said coldly, and walked away feeling sick of himself._**

If Eriol caught him taking a break now he'd send Syaoran right back to work, so going back to talk to the performers was Syaoran's best choice. He didn't want to face Ami again after their argument yesterday, but it couldn't be helped.

Syaoran leaned forward to peer over a girl's shoulder at the paper she was holding. The lines for the evil fairy were highlighted in blue so that she wouldn't get confused with the rest of the script. "You guys practicing again?" he asked.

They turned to look at him. "Oh… yes…"

Something was different. He frowned, getting a little impatient of how everyone was acting up. "Listen, do you guys think I shouldn't have defended Sakura?"

The evil fairy actress stared at him dumbfounded, and then laughed. "No, of course not! Most of us weren't even there." She hesitated, and then continued. "We were just wondering… practice started 15 minutes ago and Kinomoto-san isn't here. There's only a little more than a week left—do you think we should start looking for a new Sleeping Beauty?"

Syaoran considered the question. They were right, of course. If Sakura didn't come today she'd have to cram to memorize all her lines in time for the dress rehearsal in a few days, plus she'd miss the practice they were all going to have right now. "Well, you guys can go on and read your lines together," he said. "If she doesn't come today we'll think of something."

Secretly he wanted to run all the way to her house and demand that she come back to practice, but the girl would probably just fry him with one of those potions she was always experimenting with. _Come on, Sakura, _he thought, glancing at the door. _Don't let Ami get to you._

All the performers had practiced their songs at home, but there were still the non-singing parts to practice, since a lot of them were terrible at acting. Eriol came and sat down in a circle with all of them. "Okay, let's start," he said, nodding to the boy who was supposed to be narrator.

"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a king and queen ruled over their land. They were kind and virtuous, and the townspeople loved them dearly, but they were sad, for they had no child."

Syaoran sat down at the edge of the circle to listen, pretending that to not notice the props crew calling him over. He glanced at the door again. Sakura said she was practicing her songs at home, but did that mean her lines, too?

"Then one day the queen found that she was expecting a baby. The news rushed through their kingdom, heralds spreading their joy among the townspeople."

Eriol nodded to the extras. "This is where you start singing." The narrator continued.

Syaoran listened as the story went through its beginning: the king and queen invited twenty fairy godmothers for their baby girl, allowing them to give gifts. But they'd forgotten one evil fairy, and that offended her. On the princess's birthday, the evil fairy arrived to give her a curse—on her sixteenth birthday, the princess would prick her finger on a spindle and die.

"And this is where my song comes in, right?" the girl he'd talked to asked. Eriol nodded. They continued to the cottage scene.

Syaoran's eyes drifted to the auditorium door once again. It was almost time for the princess's part, and Sakura still wasn't there.

_She's the only one who can really play the part, _Syaoran thought, looking at the door and then around the auditorium. Sakura still wasn't there. _It's not just the singing and her looks, it's just… the way she talks, she can _**be**_ the princess. _

"Briar-rose, would you pick some berries for us? There are some ripe ones near the house, and we can have them with tea," one of the 'fairy godmothers' said. She raised an eyebrow. "Do I really have to say 'have them with tea'? I don't think that was in the cartoon."

The scriptwriter sighed. "We're trying to make it different from the Disney cartoon! Now, who's next…? Oh yeah, the princess…" he trailed off as all of them realized that Sakura probably wasn't coming. The performers looked to Eriol, their question clear. _Who'll be the princess?_

"Erm… well…" Eriol was as reluctant to replace Sakura as Syaoran was. He looked up at the doorway and then called out, "Is Kinomoto-san here yet?"

"Nope!" someone called. Syaoran turned and saw it was Ami who'd spoken. She smirked up at him, hands on her hips as if to say, _What are you going to do now?_

Eriol looked at him and shrugged an apology. "We'll get someone else to play Sleeping Beauty, since Kinomoto doesn't seem to want to anymore. There was that one girl who auditioned… we can still reach her and ask her to memorize the parts at home." He nodded to the fairy godmother. "Go on. Just skip Aurora's parts for now."

The cast looked back at him blankly. "But the whole act has her, with the song and all, until the Prince comes."

Eriol thought for a moment. "Well… I'll read her parts for now, to fill in," he said awkwardly. "Let's see… 'Oh, I'd love to! I'll be back in a few hours.'" Some of the other performers snickered, and Eriol's cheeks turned red. "Go on!" he snapped at the narrator. They continued; the princess started talking with her animal friends.

"…oh, someday I'll meet him, I just know it." Eriol's face was blazing by now, but he went on. "Someday I'll meet a handsome prince." He looked up from his script. "Aurora should sing n—"

_**I wonder, I wonder**_

At that moment the auditorium doors opened to let in sunlight and the silhouette of a girl standing in the doorway.

_**  
I wonder if my heart keeps singing  
Will my song go winging  
**_

The girl kept singing softly as she made her way up to their circle and sat next to Syaoran, keeping her eyes down at the floor.

_**To someone, who'll find me  
And bring back a love song to me? **_

Sakura looked up and seemed to notice that everyone was listening. "Is that right?" she asked shyly, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks.

Eriol grinned and Syaoran noticed he was doing the same. "The princess has arrived, ladies and gentlemen," Syaoran said, putting a hand on Sakura's shoulder. She looked up at him with a smile on her face.

"Syao-kun?"

"Yes?"

"You're touching me again."

_**He smiled down at her in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "Sure. If I were you, I wouldn't come within a mile of the auditorium ever again," he joked, trying to cheer her up. **_

**_Sakura stared thoughtfully into space. "Mmm," she said. It didn't really mean anything. After a while she stood, brushing off the dress and getting ready to go home. _**

"_**You know what?" He'd been surprised that she spoke again. **_

"_**What?"**_

"_**It wouldn't be nice to let that Ami girl win, would it?"**_

**_He grinned back at her. "No, it wouldn't."_**

**_

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_It was a little confusing, but did you like it? PLEASE review. I need happiness to survive school, ugh._  
_**


	4. What He Does

**Hey guys! Here comes the fluff... hehehe... anyway school has started so now I really think I won't be able to write as much. I started writing chapter 5 during morning orientation though, so oh well. Hopefully I can write in math class or something. I know you'll like this chappie, since things start to heat up a little more. **

**I know Ami's a complete bitch and you'll learn a little more about her today. I'm hoping this chapter isn't lame... :(  
**

**Oh, dancingwindforever, Sakura's a little different because I didn't plan to use CCS characters in the first place. Syaoran is a card captor too but at this time they're almost done with everything they need to do. It is a few years into the future after all. Meiling and Syaoran? Nope. She likes him as a brother. :D**

**Enjoy, and thanks for the GREAT reviews!**

**Chapter 4: What He Does**

_FRIDAY_

_Homework: _

_Tests: _Math Q next Tues

_Projects:_

The lunch bell rang as Kinomoto Sakura sat at her desk in room IVB, staring blankly at the planner open in front of her. As the rest of the class stood to say goodbye to the teacher and leave, she gave herself a little time to think of what she was going to do now.

You see, usually Sakura _studied_ during lunch time. She finished all her homework or recopied her notes or reviewed her lessons to pass the time after she'd eaten the food she always bought for herself. Sakura liked doing things regularly, and she'd always thought there was no better way to take advantage of a free period than studying.

Well, until Syaoran came along.

Ever since that Monday afternoon when he'd caught her singing back home, Syaoran had made it his personal hobby to follow Kinomoto around the school, annoying her and encouraging her in equal parts. It was a big change from the usual days she would spend alone with books, and sometimes she wanted to shut the guy in a locker for a few hours and see if that did any good.

Then again, sometimes finding a friend was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

_Like last Wednesday,_ Sakura thought, slowly closing the planner and tucking it into her messenger bag. _If Syaoran hadn't come and stuck up for me, I'd have probably started crying in front of everyone. And then what? _

She smiled faintly. After coming home in tears and throwing the hated dress in a crumpled heap next to her bedroom door, she'd sworn to never ever sign up for any stupid clubs ever again.

But when she'd thought of having to tell Syaoran that she was quitting the drama club, she'd felt bad. She'd felt like she was breaking a promise she'd made to a little kid who believed she could give him the moon for his birthday.

_I'm sorry, but I can't anymore, _she had planned to tell him, but she'd put it off until the next day. She'd gone through the whole school day being teased and annoyed by him as usual, _because he knew I wouldn't quit on him._

After school she'd gotten ready to walk home like she always did, and Syaoran had gone straight to the auditorium to help out. She'd known that she was supposed to practice lines with the rest of the cast that day, and after fifteen minutes of standing at the school gates trying to decide whether to go home or not, she'd gone up to the auditorium after all. It was just as well, because the grin on Syaoran's face as she walked into the room had made her feel like she was doing something good.

So. She was almost used to the idea that she, Kinomoto Sakura, was starring in a school musical. That was good in some ways, and bad in others.

Take today, for instance. It was a Friday, the only weekday when they didn't have practice after school. Syaoran had met her on his way to class as usual, but now that they wouldn't need to rehearse, he clearly had plans to spend the lunch period with his own friends.

_If I was a normal girl I would be spending lunch with _my_ own friends, too,_ Sakura thought. _Too bad I don't have any. _She knew Tomoyo and Meiling because they'd been involved in all the Clow Card stuff last year, but she'd never gone up to talk to them otherwise, and vice versa. Syaoran was the only person who'd tried to start a conversation with her.

_And there's no homework yet… _Sakura almost shuddered as she thought of sitting down in one place for a whole hour with nothing else to do but watch the other kids pass by. _Great. Just GREAT. What were the things I did before drama club anyway…?_

She remembered spending her time planning complicated escapes so she could go home for lunch instead of having to sit all alone in the school cafeteria. Those had never worked, and they'd been fun anyway, but… _For once, I don't want to go home right away, _Sakura thought, surprising herself. Why didn't she? There was nothing for her here, no one to talk to… except Syaoran.

_Hah, as if _he _changes things._

Sakura made her way to the school cafeteria, noting that everyone else seemed to have at least one other person to sit with. She caught sight of Syaoran and his friends buying their lunch and slid into line a few people behind them, looking up to check on them every once in a while.

"May I please have a paper bag for mine?" Meiling asked the lunch lady innocently. The cafeteria staff seemed used to this already.

"What she said!" Syaoran called out from behind Meiling. Sakura narrowed her eyes slightly. Why were they all getting bags to put their food in? Where were they going?

When Tomoyo had taken her bagged lunch and the three of them had left the cafeteria, Sakura brought her tray to an empty table and sat down to eat at its edge where not too many people would see she was alone. She'd always eaten that way, ever since she discovered that kids didn't walk up to you and welcome you to their table with open arms. It had never bothered her before, but today…

_So it _does _feel weird, being alone after you've eaten with someone else, _Sakura thought, biting into her sandwich. _Damn it! Before that Li came I didn't care about having people to hang around with._

…_Did I?_

Finally the eyes of her fellow classmates became too uncomfortable for her, and Sakura stood, dumping the rest of her lunch in a trash bin. She wasn't hungry anyway. Sliding her tray on top of the other used ones and dusting off her hands, she shouldered her messenger bag again and started walking.

_Let's see… I can go to the library, or I can go to the computer lab, or…_

_Oh, who am I kidding, I'm going to go find them._

She walked out of the cafeteria, grateful that most of the other kids were too busy eating or talking to notice that she was alone, and looking left and right for any glimpse of Syaoran, Tomoyo, or Meiling.

_What does he do at lunchtime anyway?_

They weren't in the library or by the school's front gate where a lot of people ate. They weren't at the gym or in the bleachers next to the soccer field, though she did see Eriol there with some friends. Sakura almost bumped into Ami who was walking past with her own group, and she hid behind the gym wall to wait until the other girl was gone.

That was when she saw Syaoran and the others, sitting on picnic mats under the one tree on the right side of the soccer field. Syaoran was laughing so hard that he was almost lying down on the mat, and Tomoyo was shaking her head lightly at Meiling, who was doing an imitation of one of their teachers.

For a moment Sakura felt very, very lonely.

_Snap out of it! You wanted to see what he does, so now you see it. _

She was about to go back to the library and see if there were any more fiction novels she hadn't read yet when she bumped into Eriol. Literally. The other senior stopped for a moment, and then recognized her and grinned.

"Hey, Kinomoto-san. You done eating?"

She nodded stiffly, trying not to look at Eriol's friends. They were all too tall and intimidating for her to handle.

"Oh. So what are you doing around here?"

Sakura looked around and shrugged, opening her mouth as if she was going to say something. It _was _a little strange to be hanging around between the school gym and the soccer field at lunch time with no one else.

Then Eriol's face lighted up. "You're looking for Li!"

"N-no, it's okay, I—" she stammered out, but Eriol was already turning to wave at the three sitting in the soccer field.

"Oy! Li-san! Kinomoto's been looking for you!"

Sakura froze, turning red as Syaoran looked up from the picnic mat. She couldn't meet his eyes.

_Right, I can add this to my list of most embarrassing moments ever. Thanks a lot, Eriol. _She looked up at the boy, her scowl softening a little. It wasn't his fault; he thought he was helping her.

_That still doesn't change the fact that Syaoran now thinks I am the most desperate loner this side of the Pacific Ocean._

Sakura stared down at her hands, playing with the hair elastic she'd put around her wrist just in case. She heard the footsteps of three people coming up to where she and Eriol stood, and her face started to burn even more.

_Okay, Syaoran _and _his two friends. Great. Just great._

She forced herself to look up at them and try to smile. Syaoran had his irritating 'casually interested' expression on, and it always made her want to see just what could make the guy annoyed for once. He was definitely good at getting _other_ people on the edge of their nerves.

Tomoyo and Meiling ran up to join them and Sakura braced herself for the usual whispers and giggles that she'd seen practically everyone start when they saw her. But the two girls only smiled. Friendly smiles.

"You were looking for us, Sakura-chan?"

She turned back to Syaoran. A hint of a smile had crept onto his face, and his eyes twinkled playfully. Sakura had no doubt that he knew she wasn't looking for them. Maybe he even knew she'd been spying on them.

"Umm, umm…" She looked from Eriol to Syaoran to Meiling and Tomoyo. They all waited for her answer. "I… yes, I was kind of looking for you," she finished lamely.

"Oh, well you should know we always eat under the tree over there!" That was Meiling. She pointed to where their lunches were laid out on the picnic mats.

"Mm-hmm," Syaoran said, his hands in his pockets. "Why did you look for us?"

She didn't glare at him, because the others would see, but she knew this time he was challenging her.

_If I break down now and be all quiet, it's okay; I was always like that before, _she thought. _But I guess he wants to see if I can talk for myself. _

She looked him straight in the eye and shrugged, very much like Syaoran himself always did. "I just wanted to ask if you actually are going out 'to buy art supplies' with the props crew," she said. "After all, I heard one of the girls asking you to yesterday. You shouldn't let her down."

Syaoran seemed suspiciously afraid of the way Meiling and Tomoyo were staring at him. "N-no, I said no because I'm going for ice cream with Tomoyo and Meiling after school," he said, grinning at her. "Which reminds me… Do you wanna come sit with us?"

"I'm done eating," she started to say, but he shook his head.

"We're done eating too; we're just talking and stuff." Syaoran flicked his chin in the direction of their tree, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Eriol and his friends start walking away.

She was still a little hesitant. "Do you really want me to?"

In an instant she saw it was the wrong thing to say. Syaoran's smile faded just a bit, and she knew she'd hurt him a little, accusing him of inviting her to eat with them just because she was alone.

"…Yes, I really want you to," he said.

"We really want you to, too," Meiling chimed in, and then laughed at her own words. "To, too, how confusing is that?"

"Mei-chan, you are so weird sometimes," Tomoyo was saying as the two of them started walking back to the tree. Sakura looked up at Syaoran, biting her lip a little. She couldn't say 'sorry' because he wasn't supposed to know she'd seen him get offended.

"Thank you, Li-kun," she said finally, and he shrugged.

"It's nothing. Come on, let's go." For a moment it seemed like he was going to take her hand, but then he shoved his fists deep into his pockets once more and started walking.

Sakura followed, growing more angry at herself the more she thought about what had just happened. _Why did I even _think _of him holding my hand, hmm? Honestly, it's like I'm this different person now. _

"Oy, Kinomoto-san, hurry!"

She looked up in surprise to see Tomoyo waving her over. Meiling rummaged around in her bag and then brought out what looked like a game of Twister. Syaoran turned to look at her.

_Well, if this 'different person' gets friends, I guess it can't be too bad._

Sakura smiled and ran over to join them.

-------------------------

"Bye Sakura-chan!"

Sakura turned and waved back to Meiling and Tomoyo. "Meiling, remember to go talk to Eriol tomorrow!" She grinned and then let the ice cream parlor's door slide shut behind her, joining Syaoran on the street afterwards.

"What happened?" Syaoran asked, looking slightly amused.

"Oh, Meiling said she wanted to be part of the musical too. So I told her to go and ask Eriol if they were accepting any more extras." Fastening the buckle on her bag, she looked up to see Syaoran shaking his head and grinning. "What? What did I say?"

"No, no," he laughed. "I was asking 'what happened' because I'm not sure this is the same Kinomoto Sakura walking next to me."

She shrugged, blushing a little. It was nice to have friends to walk with between classes, and Tomoyo had promised to be her partner for their art project since Meiling would be Syaoran's. As soon as school ended they'd all gone out to the nearby ice cream shop, and Tomoyo had paid for her scoop before she could even open her wallet. These were nice people. "I can change," she said awkwardly.

Syaoran only laughed again. "Not too much though, okay? We don't want you turning into a popular girl and leaving us behind."

She scoffed. "Yeah, like that's ever going to happen." The word 'popular' made her think of Ami, who had girls wanting to be her friends and boys wanting to be more than that. Sakura had never really talked to her, and before the dress thing she'd even thought that Ami was a nice, well-rounded student who had a lot of friends because she was a good person.

Of course, if being a good person meant totally humiliating the new girl in drama club, then Ami was the perfect example.

She felt Syaoran looking at her and knew that he could guess what she was thinking about. _And a few days ago I thought he was insensitive. _Neither of them spoke for a while until she got the words out.

"I just… don't know why someone like Ami would be so mean."

Syaoran shrugged.

"I mean, she's a popular person. She has loads of friends and she has pretty good grades, so why would she want to pick on someone like me?" Sakura shook her head.

Syaoran thought for a moment. "Being popular isn't easy, I guess," he said carefully. "If you want to stay on top of things, you have to do something big every once in a while, to remind everyone to look back at you again, you know?"

"Nope. I never got how social status works, so yeah."

"Well…" For a moment he looked uncomfortable. "I… I… went out with her once, a long time ago."

Sakura stared at him. _"Her!"_

He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah. We lasted two days. There's something about that girl that makes her friends start to feel uncomfortable."

Sakura didn't bother to ask what it was. He'd get there.

"Sometimes when I was talking with her, I felt like she was hanging on to me too much. She was always telling jokes and stories and being funny and smart, but they all felt like ways to make sure that I was still her friend." He shook his head. "Ami's kind of… desperate."

Sakura was quiet. _I guess everything comes with a price._

After a few more seconds, Syaoran broke the silence. "Anyway, so today's Friday. Are you doing anything this weekend?"

Sakura shook her head. She lived alone most of the time, since her dad was always out on business travels and Touya was in college. She'd gotten used to it.

"Then maybe I'll stop by and we can practice the songs this time," he said. "I'll call you—can I call you?"

This was getting a bit too awkward for Sakura's comfort, but she nodded and gave Syaoran her phone number. He repeated it to himself three times to memorize it, and by this time they were at Sakura's gate.

"…So tomorrow, okay? Don't go to any big parties…?"

Sakura laughed at him and swung her bag at his leg. "Go home already!"

He grinned and then pointed to the edge of a plastic container hanging out of the corner of her bag. "Careful with that."

"What is it?" she said, getting ready to unfasten the buckle. Syaoran came over and tugged on the end of the plastic bag.

"No, don't, it'll tear—"

The plastic suddenly ripped apart and the air between them exploded with pink and silver glitter. Sakura shrieked and Syaoran's shout turned into a laugh as he realized that he was covered all over with it.

Sakura only had a little of the pink glitter on her skin, but she looked up and saw Syaoran's arm and shirt coated with the stuff. Then their eyes met and they started to laugh hard, the kind of laugh where you had to hold your stomach because it felt like it was splitting apart. The two of them stood there in the middle of the street for a while, laughing and staggering left and right.

"You'd… better… wash that off," Sakura finally gasped.

"I don't know, it brings out the color of my eyes…" Syaoran laughed again, rubbing at his face with one hand. It only spread the glitter more. "Why do you have a bag of glitter with you anyway?"

"Eriol asked me to bring it. The props team is thinking of sprinkling a little on my dress's skirt."

"That's not a little, that's enough for the whole cast's costumes." He sneezed. "I really have to go and wash up before I inhale some of this."

She nodded firmly. Syaoran had pink and silver glitter on his left arm, sleeve, and cheek. He straightened up and was almost ready to go when he looked straight at her and came closer. A blush crept up into Sakura's cheeks, but she was red from laughing anyway.

"What is it? Do I have glitter on my face?"

He shook his head, and she started to blush more.

Then he said, "No, it's ice cream." Sakura almost sighed with relief. If it _hadn't_ been something on her face, what would have happened…?

"Where?"

He pointed to the right of his own forehead, where hair met scalp. Sakura frowned. "It might get in my hair," she said, starting to rub at the place.

"No, there's only a bit of it," he said. "You can wipe them off in one swipe."

"Great, it's going to drip down my face soon." She rubbed again and kept looking at her finger, but no vanilla ice cream showed up on it. "Damn it, if I had a mirror…"

Syaoran sighed as if he was dealing with a five-year-old. "Here, here, let me do it."

He stepped forward, and then reached out with his right thumb and brushed it across the side of her forehead. Time seemed to stop and all her nerves stood on edge to feel his hand on her skin, ever so slowly making its way down her face. Then he drew back his fingers for a second, only to have them tuck a few stray strands of hair behind her ear. His hand knocked against her earlobe ever so slightly.

Sakura froze, a shiver going up her spine. The skin he'd touched blazed with sparks of electricity, and she found herself repeating the scene over and over again in her mind. Her heartbeat growing faster, she looked into Syaoran's face with eyes full of puzzlement, as if to ask him, _What just happened there?_

He'd felt it too, she was sure of it. But in two seconds it was over and a neighbor's door slamming shut a few houses away broke the silence between them.

"I-I'll go now," he said. She stared at him. It was the first time he'd left without her having to nag him.

"Mm-hmm," she said back. "See you tomorrow, I guess?"

He looked back at her and then smiled. "Yeah. See you, Sakura-chan."

Li Syaoran walked up the street in the direction of his house, and for once Kinomoto Sakura stayed at the gate and watched him go.

----------------------------

RING RING

Sakura raised her head from her pillow and saw the phone ringing on her bedside table. She thrust out a hand and weakly lifted the receiver, pressing the Speakerphone button and letting herself lie back again with a stifled groan.

"Saaaaaaaakura-chan, good evening!" Syaoran's voice blared.

Sakura sat bolt upright and swiped at her eyes with a fist, glancing at the digital clock. It was 10:33.

"Li, it's too late to talk, let me sleep," she groaned, tilting her head back against the wall.

"Too late? Come on, I thought you were going to 'change'. It's still pretty early."

"_Pretty early_?" she growled back.

"Mm-hmm. What time do you sleep anyway?"

"9:30?"

"_9:30 _on a Friday night!" Sakura was vaguely aware of how surprised Syaoran sounded, but she was slowly falling asleep again.

"Yeah, and Saturday night too," she said softly. "Listen Syao-kun, I might… fall… asleep on you…"

He laughed back. Was it just her or was his voice far away…? "Oh you were serious about 9:30? Well… sorry. It's okay if you fall asleep…"

"Hey… Syaoran?"

"Yeah?"

"I was looking for you guys because… I wanted to see what you do at lunchtime."

He laughed. "Well it's pretty normal; I hang out with my friends."

"Yeah, normal… normal… Hey Syao-kun?"

"Mm?"

"You… felt it too… right?"

For a few seconds there was complete silence as Sakura drifted off to sleep and Syaoran wondered what he could possibly answer to that.

"…Felt what?" he whispered.

There was no answer. Her breath was slow and regular.

"Sakura? Sakura?"

"Sakura! Felt what?..."

**OF COURSE Syao knows what she means... he's just checking to see if they're really thinking the same thing.**

**Hey, if anyone can make good fanart of Sakura in her princess dress (look at the cartoon one in Sleeping Beauty and make the skirt poofier) just put the link in a review and I'll post it up with the next chapter. I love fanfiction art. :D **

**Anyway, goodbye to every-night-fanfiction. Thanks again for all the reviews, and wish me luck for the months of torture that await me. **

**Ja ne! **


	5. Her Stuff

**HALLELUJAH FOR WEEKENDS!**

**I updated my profile, go check it out. :D **

**You guys might find this chapter a leeetle boring, but come on, they can't jump into each other's arms just yet (or can they? lol). Anyway, enjoy, and review please! **

**

* * *

Chapter 5: Her Stuff**

Sometimes things happen and you can't be sure if they're good or bad. Sometimes you spend hours, maybe days, wondering how to label these things in your memory, until you realize you don't have to—because they've already happened anyway.

_It doesn't matter if it was good or bad, _Syaoran thought, stopping by the bathroom before he left the house. A tall, well-built, almost-18-year-old boy stared back at him blankly. _It just… happened. _He ran three fingers through his hair, but some of it still stuck up in uneven clumps.

_I wonder if she even remembers what she said last night._

He'd felt it too, maybe even more than she had, but he hadn't expected her to ask him straight out. For a moment that night Syaoran had frozen, speechless. He'd already moved on, telling himself that it was nothing, but talking to her could bring it all back so easily…

_That moment, _he thought, locking the house door behind him. _What happened there?_

In novels and movies, after something like this, the hero would realize that he loved his girl, everything would be cleared up, and they'd all live happily ever after. But Syaoran only felt more confused than he'd ever been in his life. He could have walked the road to her house with his eyes closed, but he double-checked every road sign he turned at, not trusting himself to think clearly. The sun was hidden by clouds, and the air was hot and damp; a storm was waiting to let itself go.

_Why do I keep remembering it anyway?_

He reached her gate and pushed it open, ready to jump out of the way if another one of her traps burst open at him. She'd set a few of them around the house before, which he'd discovered the hard way after trying to go and "borrow" her textbook.

_We didn't kiss or anything. We barely even touched._

Who knew she was so touchy about having intruders in her yard? He walked up the path to her door and knocked.

_Maybe because it's the first time she didn't shrink away._

"Just a minute!"

He heard faint bangs and crashes from inside the house. Then Sakura yanked open the door and the excited smile on her face faded quickly.

"Oh, it's you…"

He stepped inside with a grin, used to this kind of reaction. "You were expecting someone?"

She scowled. "Just something I ordered by catalog. They said it would come today."

"Uh-huh, sure," he said, sprawling on her couch. "So where's your fridge again?"

She put her hands on her hips. "Don't act like this is your house! We're supposed to practice, right?"

He didn't get up, of course. "Correction: you're supposed to practice. I sit back and enjoy the music."

He'd put his hands behind his head when she grabbed one of the pillows from the other couch and hit him with it.

"Off my couch!"

He was about to get another pillow to shield himself when he remembered what Meiling had told him a long time ago, when she'd still been trying to hide that she liked him. (A/N: She DOESN'T like him that way, don't worry.)

"_If a girl hits you, it means she likes you."_

_If she hits me…_

The pillow slammed into his shoulder, _hard._ "Hey, that hurt—" She hit the side of his head this time. "—more than usual!"

"Off!"

"Okay, okay!" He rolled off the couch onto the floor, and then heaved himself to his feet. "We should start practicing already anyway."

Sakura went into her room, making sure to lock the door behind her even if she was only inside for a few seconds.

_She's really hiding something in there, _Syaoran thought, watching as she brought out a tape cassette player and plugged it in. _I have to find out what it is._

"I found some old Disney tapes at the store, so I have the songs I'm going to sing," she said, popping a tape into the machine. "But for the real thing I'll have a minus one version, right?"

He shrugged. "Ask the electropeople. They're handling sound effects and lights."

"_Electropeople_…?"

"Electronic Management Crew, stop looking at me like I'm a retard."

She laughed and pressed PLAY on the machine. The music from Disney's Sleeping Beauty floated out and Syaoran say on the floor, waiting for her to start and pretending to be bored.

She stood in the center of the room and stuck her tongue out at him before lightly closing her eyes and starting to sing. As usual her voice cut through all other noise, almost inhuman in the way it resounded in his head. He found it hard to sit back and try to pick out its faults like she wanted him to, especially because she had a good ear and rarely even made pitch mistakes.

**_I wonder, I wonder  
I wonder why each  
Little bird has someone  
To sing sweet things to  
A gay little love—_**

Her voice trembled a bit, and he looked up to see that it was because she was trying not to laugh.

"What are you laughing at?"

"You look funny!" She was actually _grinning. _

"Funny how?"

"I don't know…" She tilted her head to one side. "You look like you're trying to figure out how many liters of fuel it would take to get to Pluto and back."

He frowned while she laughed at him. "Come on, I'm not a very musical person. It's hard to figure out the bad parts in your song."

"Then say there aren't any!"

"Back to work, princess." He rewinded the tape a bit and then played it again for her to sing to, smiling a little. Like her, he was alone most of the time because of busy parents, and he was sure they were both happy to have someone just to relax with.

**_…To sing sweet things to  
A gay little love melody?  
I wonder, I wonder  
If my heart keeps singing  
_**

_It feels like we've been best friends for ages, _he thought, but that made him blush and so he turned his attentions back to her singing.

_**Will my song go winging  
To someone who'll find me  
And bring back a love song to me?**_

She finished and opened her eyes. "How was that?"

"94 percent."

"98!"

"96?"

"Fine." Letting herself fall into the sofa, she stretched and yawned dramatically. "When's the dress rehearsal?"

"Don't ask me, I never plan ahead." He dodged the pillow she threw at him and sat down across from her. "You wanna practice the other song? The one with the prince?"

"Later, later," she said, putting a hand on her forehead and closing her eyes. "You wanna be a good person and get some water for both of us?"

He was already on his feet, creeping to her bedroom door and reaching out for the knob. "Yes, okay…"

In two seconds she was in front of him with a pillow. "No."

"Sakura-chan…"

She stomped her foot and pointed to the kitchen. "Water."

"What secrets are you hiding in there?"

"Curiosity killed the cat."

"And satisfaction brought it back!" He didn't budge, and she sighed.

"Listen… it's just… really important to me, okay?"

He only raised an eyebrow and she shook her head. "Promise you won't try to get in anymore?"

"Yes, mommy. Note the sarcasm."

She was about to argue back when her face seemed to crumple and she held her hand to the side of her stomach. "This really hurts…"

He was getting a little worried about her. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head, biting her lip a little. "I have to go to the bathroom, umm…"

"Do you need a painkiller?" he asked, heading to the kitchen.

"No! No… it's okay…"

He came back out and looked at her, _really _looked at her. Her face was red and she looked tired, but her voice was as cutting as it always was. "It's nothing, Syaoran. I get…aches… every so often."

He stared, and then realized what it was and started to laugh. "Oh, so _that's _what it is. You need me to get anything…?"

"Whatever you know, you're not a girl, so don't act like one!" she snapped back.

"Juuust trying to help." He shrugged. "We study in a co-ed school. Guys find out about this stuff sooner or later."

"Whatever." She went into her room and locked the door, leaving him with nothing to do in the living room. He got up and made himself some powdered juice, but got bored very soon.

_How long does it take to change?_ Syaoran thought, frowning as he went over to her bedroom door and knocked.

"Sakura-chan?"

No answer. He counted to ten and knocked again.

_Where…? What if something happened?_

"Sakura?"

_What if it's not just her monthlies…? What if she collapsed or something?_

"Sakura!" He pounded on her door, getting more than a bit worried this time. _There was this survey thing we studied in health class, that majority of all accidents happen at home, what if I need to call an ambulance, or do CPR, or—_

"Can't you wait five minutes!" she yelled back, and Syaoran sighed with relief, laughing a little at how paranoid he was. _Don't act like you always have to take care of her._

"Why weren't you answering?" he called, leaning his weight on her door.

"Why are you so paranoid? I was washing my face." He heard her sit on her bed, pick something up, and put it back down. "I'll be out in a minute."

"A regular minute or a girl minute?"

"What!"

"Nothing. I forgot you're not like most girls…" He tipped his head back against the door, one knee bent.

"Thank you." More rustlings and thumps. He had no clue what she was doing in there. He waited a little, but it was hard not to be impatient. _This is way longer than one minute…_

_Wait, for once I'm the one getting pissed off. _He grinned to himself. "Done yet, princess?"

"I'm just clearing my desk a little…"

"Cleaning! Do it later!"

"No wait, I just have to find something and then I can come out."

He rolled his eyes. "Honestly, how long do you take to change while I stand out here like some kind of stupid bodyguard—"

Sakura pulled open the door.

Really, it wasn't like him to be caught off guard and to fall so hopelessly backward because he'd been leaning on it. It wasn't like him to crash into Sakura, seeing her startled expression as she sidestepped him and watched him flail for something to hold onto.

And it definitely wasn't like him to bang the back of his head on her wood flooring and watch as everything faded to black.

* * *

"Syaoran. _Syaoran!"_

Someone was shaking his left shoulder. His shirt and face felt wet with very cold water, and he was lying on something very hard and uncomfortable.

"Syaoran!"

He opened his eyes. "Why am I all wet?"

"Oh, _God._" Sakura rocked back on her heels with a sigh of relief from where she'd been sitting next to him. "Syaoran, you _big idiot."_

The back of his head stung. He put a hand up and felt something warm and sticky… _blood! _His fingers were stained red.

"Sakura, I need… to wash…" He stared at the red on his thumb, a dark spot no bigger than a nail, and felt his eyes popping out. This was his blood. The back of his head was bleeding. This was _his _blood.

"Are you okay?"

"Blood…" His hand started to shake a little, and as much as he wanted to look away from the horrifying red, he couldn't.

"Li-kun, are you scared of blood?"

_Headbleedinggoingtodiebloodonhandmybloodnotanyoneelse'sit'sonmyhand!_

"You…" Her voice sounded amazed. "Look here."

He shook his head slowly, and she put a finger under his chin and lifted it so he could look up. "You really _are_ scared of blood," she said, looking very surprised and amused in equal parts.

He gulped down the big lump in his throat and wiped his fingers on his pants. "No, I mean…" She was sitting so near to him that her knees were brushing his leg.

She shook her head. "It's okay."

_Why do I have to start liking _this_ girl!_

He'd admitted it to himself, so it was okay now to think those kind of thoughts about her, Syaoran concluded. He blinked hard. Sakura was getting up to go to the bathroom and muttering something about band aids, and he suddenly noticed that finally he was in her room. He looked around, seeing a normal single bed, student desk, closet, and bookshelf.

Then he turned to see the shelf behind him, and his eyes grew wide.

"…well I don't know if you want to put a band aid there because it'll stick to your hair, but anyway, here's a wet tissue to wipe it and…" she trailed off, realizing he wasn't listening to her. "Do you want to get infected or not!"

Syaoran turned and pointed. "Where did you get these?"

Carefully positioned on the shelf behind him were dozens of glass animals, each of them sparkling beautifully. He stood up and went to get a closer look, not bothering to count all of them as he lifted a few and held them up. Sakura reached out and picked up a glass horse, balancing its rearing form on her palm.

"I've had them for ages," she said, voice barely above a whisper. "My parents used to give me one for every birthday, but then I started collecting them on my own."

"They're amazing," Syaoran breathed. "How many do you have?"

She shrugged. "Around 30, maybe."

He shook his head in wonder, tapping the head of a glass puppy. "This is what you were hiding?"

She nodded. "I haven't let anyone else in my room since 6th grade."

There was even a dragon with some red fire glass coming out of its mouth. "But why would you want to hide them? The others would find them cool," he said truthfully, thinking of how expensive they probably were.

Sakura frowned. "That's just it." She slid her finger along the last row of animals, stopping at an empty space in the corner. "In 5th grade I brought my whole collection along for show-and-tell. I had around 13 of these that time." She tapped the empty space. "And someone stole one of my animals."

"No way!" Syaoran almost dropped the dragon.

"Yeah. The worst part is, I was a kid that time and I can't even remember which one it was. I think it might be a songbird." She looked almost mad at herself, tapping the shelf space harder and harder. "Since then I haven't showed these to anyone. It took me a long time to collect them, because the usual shops sell the same things over and over again, and I don't want to lose another one."

"Thanks for showing me, then."

She looked up at him and laughed. "You fell into my room and blacked out, it's the least I can do." Their eyes met, and he saw her blush. "Listen, I can practice the duet with the person who's singing it, okay?"

"Okay," he said slowly. "I guess I'll go now."

It was the wrong thing to say. He saw her smile falter just a little bit. "Oh, if you have stuff to do, okay." _She wanted me to stay?_

"Okay," he repeated, nodding stupidly. He looked down and saw the glass dragon was still in his hand. "Thanks. Again. I mean, for showing me all this."

He felt better when that smile came back to her face. "It's nothing. Just don't steal any of them."

"I'd probably get better ones at the toy store, thank you very much."

She rolled her eyes and he laughed, walking over to the front door. Sakura watched, looking particularly lonely as he opened it and stood on the porch.

"Hey, Syaoran?"

"Yes?" He turned.

"Did I fall asleep when you were talking to me last night?"

He looked down. Did she remember? "Yeah, it's okay."

"Oh." She was blushing now. "I say weird things when I'm falling asleep, right? Did I say anything really stupid?"

For a moment he felt like telling her, and then decided it would be mean to embarrass her that way. "Nope, nothing stupid at all." That was true, anyway.

"Thanks." She nodded. He nodded, and turned to go with a little wave. "See you on Monday."

"See you."

It was very nice to have a girl standing at her door, watching you walk away from her.

* * *

PACKAGE DELIVERY RECEIPT

Description: _One (1) bird figurine, glass made with a stone base._

Sender: _Li Syaoran_

Received by: _Kinomoto Sakura _

* * *

**Oh yeah. My MOM asked if she could read this fic. I had to say no, I mean... mom and CCS? lol**.** REVIEWS PLEASE!**


	6. Routines are Good

**At last, here is your next chapter! I'm sorry it took so long, but I had school and then for a while fanfiction wouldn't let me upload some documents. So here you go. This one's just a chapter to fill in the story, to show you guys that several weeks passed and S & S got closer. :D**

** REVIEW!  
**

**

* * *

Chapter 6: Routines are Good**

Sakura liked routines.

She liked them because they gave her specific times to do specific things, scheduling and planning everything out so that, in theory, nothing would go wrong. Of course, things didn't always go as planned, but Sakura liked following her routines because they made her feel safe.

Sometimes there were small disturbances in her set plans, and Sakura always made a point to fit them into the routine and move on, because if you didn't fix problems they got bigger and bigger.

But sometimes the disturbance wasn't bad at all. Those were the hardest to fit into the routine, because you ended up wanting to make a new one.

--------------------------------------------------------------

PACKAGE DELIVERY RECEIPT

Description: _One (1) bird figurine, glass made with plastic base._

Sender: _Li Syaoran_

Received by: _Kinomoto Sakura _

--------------------------------------------------------------

"What…is this?"

Sakura turned the brown tag over in her hands, rubbing her thumb on its recycled paper until the typewritten print was too smudged to read. Finally she picked up the package and untied its old-fashioned string, recognizing the inside pattern paper that came from the local trinket shop.

_He bought this_?_ It must have been expensive…_

She didn't need to rip the paper apart. It fell open in her hands, displaying the small glass bird perched on a plastic branch inside. The bird looked like a blue jay without the blue, and its wings were cut in feather-shaped facets, glinting prettily when light hit them.

_It's far better than the one I had before, that's for sure._

Sakura carefully lifted the bird and then took a flannel cloth and wiped the empty space on her shelf. When she was sure there was absolutely no dust, she set the glass blue jay down and stepped back to admire it. Now there were no empty spaces, and she had almost every animal she could think of. There was even an ostrich.

_Complete. _She smiled, and then realized just how sweet this was, coming from a guy like Syaoran. _If I hadn't known him better, I'd have thought he would break them, not buy more for me._

She checked her watch. It was almost four in the afternoon, and unless he was out with Meiling and Tomoyo, Syaoran would be home doing nothing just like she was doing. Sakura walked over to the phone and picked it up, twirling the extension cord with one hand and looking at how perfect her glass animals were right now.

"Hello?"

"Li-kun, thank you!"…

------------------------------------

Sakura was always trying to do things right the first time. She wasn't an honor student because she didn't recite enough in class, but the grades on her written tests were pretty good because she liked being correct. She'd read somewhere that it could be a personality problem to think like this, but she didn't care.

Of course, having a guy like Syaoran around was probably the worst thing for someone who wanted to be right and safe and scheduled all the time. He was always playing tricks, breaking things, giving her things out of nowhere, borrowing her school stuff, changing his mind, and backing out of promises, and it drove her crazy, but as always she made herself just move on.

And since he was supposed to be a good friend now, Sakura usually had to _follow_ him while he did these stupid things. It really messed up her schedule almost everyday.

Then again, it was a lot of fun.

**6:25 am**

On regular days Sakura would still be asleep in her bed with her school bag already packed, her clothes already laid out, and her homework already done. She'd almost be _smiling_ because it was a relief to not have to worry about anything. Her chest rose and fell softly with the deep breaths only slumber brings, and all was quiet in her bedroom except for the faint whistling of breeze coming in through her open window.

Then—

RING RING

Sakura reached out and slammed a hand on her alarm clock, but it took her a few more seconds to realize that it was the cordless phone and not her clock making that horribly loud noise. She picked it up and groggily pressed it against her ear.

"Elo?"

"Sakura!"

She looked at the alarm clock and had to squint to read the time. "It's almost an hour before I have to wake up, call me later."

"No, no, wait, can you help me, I forgot to get the assignment yesterday…"

"I wanna sleep!"

"Please? The teacher will kill me this time if I don't forget because I promised her I'd give it today and there are—"

"All right, all right, keep your shirt on." Sakura swung her legs over the edge of the bed and promptly tripped over her school shoes, which she'd forgotten to bring downstairs yesterday.

"Ooof."

"You okay? What happened?"

"I fell. Listen, if you sleep at 1 and wake up this early, how do you have so much energy!"

"I don't know. I just do. What time did you sleep?"

"9. There's not much homework." She'd finished the reading assignment that Syaoran was probably worrying about.

"Well you got more sleep than me, so you should be less grumpy."

"I'm not a morning person," she snapped back, hunting around in her backpack for the textbook. "Okay. Just read pages 32-42 of the book and then be ready for a discussion."

"That's all? I read most of it last week already."

"That's all."

"Are you sure? You didn't forget anything else?"

"That's _all_, Syaoran! Look, I'm even going to _check my assignment notebook, _happy?"

He shut up. She sighed dramatically and stuck her arm back inside the bag, feeling around for her spiral-bound homework notebook. There was no way she was going to be able to fall back asleep now. Just NO WAY. Sakura almost picked up her backpack and threw it across the room. Where was that stupid notebook…? She looked inside, and gulped.

"Syaoran, I can't tell you what the rest of the homework is."

"Aha, so you did forget something! So what is it?"

"No, that's just it, I can't tell you."

He got a little annoyed. "Sakura, I know it's early, but I called for help….?"

"No—Syaoran—see—"

"…and just because I forget my assignments doesn't mean you have to be all 'it's your fault' and punish me. I mean, there's no rule against telling each other what the homework is. That's not cheating…"

"But Syaoran—"

"…but you seem to think it is. Please. Sakura, just this once, I swear I will never ever forget the homework again and you can take your pretty notebook wherever you want and—"

"Syaoran, _I forgot my assignment notebook at school!"_

He shut up. She sighed. Then she heard him mutter just three words before starting to laugh almost hysterically.

"We're so dead!"

**9:19 am**

On normal days Sakura was at her second period of the day, now awake enough to actually talk to people without biting their heads off. Second period was usually math, biology, or health (like today), and she was quiet and attentive in class, often having no one to talk to and nothing to talk about anyway. She bent her head over her notes and made small changes, glancing up at the blackboard and teacher to get the most out of the lecture.

A folded-up piece of paper landed squarely in the center of her desk. Sakura picked it up. People usually folded notes into triangles or paper cranes or JUST PLAIN FOLDS, but this one was a weird oblong shape. She looked up at Syaoran.

He grinned and mouthed, 'BALLOON'.

Shaking her head, Sakura unfolded the note and peered at Syaoran's squiggly handwriting leaning in every different direction, struggling to read it and failing miserably. Then suddenly the paper was knocked out of her hands and onto the floor.

"Ah, Kinomoto-san. Perhaps, since you are so interested in reading, you would be so kind as to give us one of the answers to our assignment."

"Ah… umm…"

She saw Syaoran stand up, two rows in front of her. "Sensei," he started, trying to look smart and attentive. "I apologize. I was aiming for the garbage can and accidentally managed to throw my trash onto Kinomoto's desk instead. She was only going to dispose of it properly."

The teacher raised an eyebrow. "Would _you_ like to give us an answer, Li-san?"

"Ah…"

"An example of CPR?"

"Oh." He said the first thing that popped into his head. "Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."

Sakura groaned loudly, and the teacher whipped around to face her. "Kinomoto, you seem to be bored with this. Would you know more about it than either of us? Could you specifically define mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, please?"

She turned red. It was hard to answer this, especially because only she and Syaoran were standing, while the rest of the class were giggling and whispering the word 'kiss' over and over again.

"It's… when you place your mouth over the victims'…"

The laughs grew louder. "Why don't you give Li-kun a demonstration instead?" someone yelled out, and this time Syaoran blushed.

Sakura ignored that. "..And exhale once or twice sharply, forcing air into the lungs that will instinctively be breathed out."

"Very good, Kinomoto-san." The two of them sank into their chairs relieved, exchanging a weary smile.

**12:13 pm**

On normal days Sakura headed over to the soccer field tree to eat lunch with Syaoran, Meiling, and Tomoyo. They all bought different meals from the cafeteria and then traded food to determine which one was the least vomit-inducing. After eating they usually played games or just talked, depending on how much time was left.

Today Syaoran was particularly bored.

"Any games?"

Tomoyo said, "Oh, Meiling's bringing one," just as Meiling said, "Oh, Tomoyo's bringing one." They looked at each other and laughed.

"In other words, no," Sakura said absentmindedly from a fantasy novel she was reading. It was actually funny in some parts and not too nerdy-sounding like the rest she often chose, so she wasn't really bored.

"Hmm…" Meiling's face lighted up. "Oh, I know, do you guys want some popcorn? There's a small food booth set up right outside the school, and if someone comes along to distract the guard I can try and get us a bag."

"Sure, I'll help," Tomoyo said, standing up. The two of them left Syaoran to stare irritably at Sakura.

"What's that book?"

Sakura lifted up the cover for him to see.

"Oh." He waited for her to talk about it, but he already knew she didn't like chatting when she was trying to read. "Is it any good?"

"Mm." It was just a sound, not a yes and not a no. He hated it when she did that.

Syaoran sighed and tapped his fingers on the picnic mat. Tomoyo was talking to the school's security guard, pretending not to know where something was. As the man pointed out some complicated directions, Meiling slipped past him and quickly talked to the street vendor.

Then he saw how intently Sakura was looking at her book, and a small grin snuck up the side of his face. He quickly made himself act normal and then reached out little by little, until in one big swipe he'd snatched the book away from her.

Sakura made a shocked sound. "Give it back!"

"Make me," he said, laughing as he kept it easily out of her reach. He was a lot taller than her, even when they were sitting down.

"You—" She swiped at it. "Are such a—" He laughed and then almost rolled across the mat to get away from her. "_Kid_!"

"A-ha-ha, Sakura's getting pissed." He opened the book and started to read in a singsong voice, keeping the book easily out of her reach as she grabbed for it.

"Give it _back_, Syaoran!"

This time he'd been so amused with reading a certain part that he didn't notice she'd come up behind him. He turned to face her, scrambling backwards and away at the same time as she lunged forward to grab the book. Her fingers closed on thin air, Syaoran's knee skidded on the mat, and the next thing he knew he was lying on his back…

…with her on top of him.

For a second she was as surprised as he was. Their faces were no more than inches apart, and her skin touched his in so many places that it was too late to try and think of them all. She felt his chest rise and fall as he breathed, and she stared back into those eyes as both of them tried to make sense of the situation they were now in.

Then Sakura snapped back to reality, daintily plucked the book out from between his fingers, and sat up, brushing herself off with not another word. At that moment Tomoyo and Meiling came back with their bag of popcorn, looking curiously at Sakura who sitting as far away from Syaoran as possible. He was spread out on the mat and looked up at his friends as if he'd just woken up.

"Popcorn?" Tomoyo offered. "What happened?"

Sakura turned to face all of them, looking up from her book. "Ask _him._"

Boy, it was fun to grin and watch him squirm.

**2:22 pm**

Afternoon classes were always boring because everyone wanted to go home. They were especially irritating for Syaoran, who seemed to have enough energy for the whole class, but Sakura just drew or wrote stories to keep herself awake. The teacher droned on, making notes on the board as he went. One student's pen slipped to the floor, but he didn't bother to pick it up. Papers rustled and people were quiet, either sleeping or trying to stay awake.

…Except Syaoran. He was _wide_ awake.

"Pssst."

Sakura kept drawing.

"_Sakura!_"

She didn't even look up from the anime-style fairy she'd been adding detail to. It was turning out to be quite good.

"_Your blouse is on backwards!_"

She jerked up and grabbed the front of her uniform, trying to see if a telltale tag was sticking out. She did that for a few seconds and then realized Syaoran was shaking in his seat with laughter.

_All right then,_ Sakura thought, smiling a little. _This is war._

She looked up at the teacher, who was still talking.

"All right then, class, who would like to demonstrate…"

Sakura leaned over as far as her chair would let her, rolled up a piece of pad paper, and calmly stuck the roll into Syaoran's underarm, straightening up as soon as he yelped and stuck his elbow in the air.

Their teacher was delighted. "Oh, Li-san, how nice of you to volunteer!"

Syaoran realized what he was doing and slammed his hand back down on the desk top, faking a smile at their teacher and then turning to glare at Sakura. Her desk was practically rocking with laughter.

**3:36 pm**

On normal days Sakura and Syaoran headed to the auditorium after school, where Sakura would practice her lines with the rest of the cast and Syaoran would help out with whoever needed it. Sakura had already memorized her parts ahead of time and Eriol was very proud of her, mumbling things like 'our very own star' excitedly whenever he saw her practicing. The rest of the cast, including Ami, was nice to her. In fact, Ami was pretending that nothing ever happened. She was being a friend. Sakura didn't care, as long as she didn't play anymore pranks.

Today the cast was going to rehearse the whole play as if they were really performing it, so Sakura put on her first costume and waited backstage to watch the fairy scene. She got bored a bit too quickly and looked around for somewhere to sit, but the only bench was occupied by a boy with light brown hair. She thought it was Syaoran.

"Ahh, I wish they'd just hurry up," she said, sitting down beside the guy. Of course, she almost kicked herself right there when he looked up and he _wasn't_ Syaoran, but at least she hadn't said anything private or embarrassing.

"Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else."

"It's no problem." He smiled and then saw her costume. "Oh, you're playing Aurora?"

"Yeah." It still felt weird to admit that she'd actually gone out of her way to make herself stand in the spotlight in front of the whole school.

"That's great! I'm going to be the Prince!"

Silence. She'd never really thought of who was going to be the Prince in the play. And now she realized that there was a certain scene that made her want to politely decline from her role—the tower scene.

Where the princess is awakened by her true love's kiss.

_Oh, God. _"Oh. Yes. Great. Anyway, I have to go now, so if you'll excuse me…" She was lying; it wasn't her turn to get up on stage yet, but the Prince was staring at her in a way that made her feel more than a little uncomfortable. It was the same look a lot of people gave her when she sang, but she wasn't doing anything particularly amazing right now.

"Wait, you're Sakura, right…?"

"Yes!" she called back, escaping to talk to Eriol for a while. He was a little busy shouting at someone on stage, but she knew he was an expert at multitasking. Holding a conversation and directing a rehearsal at the same time was no problem for the guy.

"Hey, Eriol…"

"No, more of sarcasm, not bluntness… Yeah?"

"I was wondering about the tower scene."

"What about it? …SARCASM, FEEL IT!"

"The… the… ending?"

He grinned, but he was still looking toward the stage. "Oh. The kiss. It's no problem. If you two don't want to, we'll close the curtain right before it actually happens, so you won't have to actually kiss."

_Great, so _he_ has a choice to do it or not. _"Oh. Thanks for that."

"…GREAT line, just PERFECT! I want that for the performance, all right?..."

**4:52**

Sakura and Syaoran walked home together, and since Syaoran's was farther he always ended up trying to get into her house for a snack. She almost never let him in, but they did talk for a while in front of her garden gate. (There was no way to ignore him, after all.)

"So don't forget to bring that Styrofoam tomorrow."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes. God, I'm not even part of the props crew!"

"I know, but they're all sick of going to the bookstore!"

She laughed. "Okay, okay." She was about to go in when she remembered the Prince and stopped, turning back to him. "Syaoran, do you know the name of the guy who's playing the Prince?"

Syaoran shook his head. "He's a new student or something. He's supposed to be really shy, but when you actually talk to him he's not that much of an introvert, like, oh, someone I know…"

"Oh. Okay. Well he does have the same hair as you do."

Syaoran laughed. "Yeah, it's crazy! If anything ever happens, Eriol told me I'd have to be him in the play."

Sakura shrugged. "Maybe." _That just makes the scene even worse._

She pretended not to notice his grin as he said, "But you're going to… get to know him a little, right?"

"Oh, shut up, Eriol said I'd never actually have to kiss him."

It was his turn to shrug. "Well, he's the one with the gravitational advantage. Good luck with that."

"Wow, 'gravitational'… six syllables. I didn't think you were capable of a word like that!"

"That has nothing to do with this! You're…"

"See you, Li-kun." She laughed a little, but it wasn't too cheerful. After seeing how indifferent he was about the Prince being able to get within a foot of her face, Sakura didn't feel so good.

_But why?_

_It's not as if…  
I actually _wanted _him to be jealous._

…

_Okay, maybe I did. _

And so the days passed, with Sakura making her schedules and Syaoran tearing them down. Some days she wanted to kill him, and other days… well, it was a lot harder now to decide what to think of him. Especially because he didn't care about the prince. Especially because she'd _wanted_ him to care…

* * *

**I'm going to post up chapter 7 now! **  



	7. Too Much for Me?

**After reading this you will all probably want to kill me, but just remember to be grateful that I posted two chapters in one day! Read and review please!****  
**

**Chapter 7: Too Much for Me?**

Weeks passed as Syaoran and Sakura put all their effort into turning the school musical into a success. Eriol grew increasingly bad-tempered as the dress rehearsal day loomed closer, and Ami made sure no one noticed she was quitting the drama club bit by bit. The rest of the cast practiced until they knew _each other's _lines by heart, the props people started smelling permanently like paint, and everyone else tried to do their work without getting yelled at.

As for the Prince-with-Syaoran's-hair, Syaoran still didn't know his first name; everyone called him Mizuno-kun and no one bothered to get friendly. There was just something about the guy that made people stay back, like the way he stared at Sakura.

"I don't know, is it the scary eyes?" Sakura asked.

They were walking to the last practice before the dress rehearsal. Syaoran laughed. "What scary eyes?"

"His eyes are blue."

"So? My eyes are brown." He watched her look up to check, and grinned back.

"No, I mean… light blue. Very pale blue. It's almost as if he has white eyes." She shuddered and then pushed open the auditorium door, the two of them stepping forward into complete chaos.

Eriol was perched on top of a chair, fastening an emergency light with masking tape and yelling at someone below him. Syaoran walked up to him, trying not to look amused. "What's up, Eri-san?"

"Something happened to the electricity in here," the director replied, words muffled by the roll of masking tape in his mouth. "We have to put emergency lights up _everywhere._"

"Oh." He looked around. "But no one else is putting anything up."

Eriol spat out the tape. "That's because they're all happy with working in the dark, and I'm not." He climbed down and then smiled. Syaoran turned to see Meiling come into the auditorium, giving Sakura a piece of candy and eating the last one right in front of Syaoran.

"So what's up?" she asked.

"Where's Tomoyo? ...And why are you here anyway?" Syaoran stuck his hand in her pocket, but there was no more candy and Meiling only laughed at him.

"Tomoyo's coming. She stopped by the bathroom." With that she made her way backstage to talk to some friends, and Syaoran turned to Sakura.

"Are you going to practice or what?"

She was looking down at her nails. "Umm… I don't know. I have most of it perfect already."

Syaoran cocked his head to one side. "So? You still sing your songs over and over again, even when there aren't any mistakes."

"I know, but we're doing the tower scene again," she spat out. "And that Mizuno guy freaks me out."

"Ohh, him," Syaoran said, faking a grin. "Why avoid your new boyfriend?" He ducked when she took a swipe at him, laughing as usual, but he decided to go and talk to the rest of the drama club first. Thinking about Sakura and Mizuno together always gave him a funny feeling in his chest.

"Syaoran-kun!"

Tomoyo ran in, face flushed with what seemed like excitement. She got to him and then for some strange reason looked around quickly before retreating into the most shadowy part of the auditorium to talk to him.

"Eh… umm… is Hiirigaziwa-kun anywhere around here?"

"Eriol?" Syaoran asked, a little surprised. He jerked a thumb behind him. "Yeah, he's backstage."

Tomoyo breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay." She looked around nervously again, and then went to help some of the props people. Syaoran stared after her confused—was she avoiding Eriol? He hadn't even known they were friends. Shrugging and moving closer to the stage, he decided to watch them practice the tower scene, even if it meant seeing Sakura and Mizuno so near each other.

"Give up, boy!"

For the real performance they had a hideous papier-mâché dragon that the Prince would battle with, but right now the evil fairy's actress stood in the middle of the stage instead, looking a little pathetic even if she was pointing an imaginary claw at Mizuno's throat.

"Never," the Prince cried nobly, and Syaoran forced himself to watch the stupid battle scene. (They couldn't do it properly without the dragon.) Once Maleficent was finally dead, the Prince climbed up the 'tower steps' (a construction ladder covered with stapled grey paper) into the round room, where Princess Aurora lay in her magical sleep. For this the props crew made the stairs lead off stage, so they'd darken the auditorium and switch furniture to make the tower room into the next scene.

For now they rushed around moving Sakura's bed into the middle of the stage. Syaoran waited and then grinned from the audience as she ran irritably into the scene, fixing her tiara before lying down against the pillows and closing her eyes. The Prince came into the room, his face melting into joy with just the right amount of sappiness. Syaoran groaned.

"Sakura, stop scratching your arm! You're supposed to be asleep!" someone said

He hid his laughter as Sakura sat up abruptly and yelled something. Eriol shook his head, and they started again.

Mizuno ran onstage, breaking into a relieved and triumphant smile when he saw Sakura. He crossed the room and knelt beside her bed, suddenly looking disappointed when he saw she was asleep. Syaoran had to admit that he had a gift for expressions.

"Fair Aurora, I have come..! What? She sleeps? I am too late, then!"

He let his head fall onto his arms, clutching one of Sakura's hands as he said some other things about despair and failure. Syaoran wasn't listening. He glared fiercely at Mizuno-kun's hand as if that would make it let go of hers.

The Prince wept, and then stony resolute seemed to blank his face. He slowly stood, looking adoringly at the sleeping Aurora.

"Alas, I have failed. She is gone. Yet here she sleeps, unreachable by all," he said loudly, starting to bend over. Syaoran tapped his fingers on the armrest.

"…Let me steal one kiss from thee…"

Syaoran checked his watch as the Prince closed his own eyes and bent over Sakura. Finally it was too much. He leaped to his feet and ran up the steps backstage to watch from the left. It was the only way he could see if Mizuno really kissed her or not once the curtains fell to change scene.

"…my dear Aurora."

Syaoran's eyes narrowed.

Mizuno bent down, his face inches away from Sakura's, and the curtains swung shut on the tower scene as the music started and a computer projected some images on a giant screen. Briars and brambles twisted themselves away from the castle, turning back into flowers, and the guests rose from the ballroom floor, rubbing sleep from their eyes.

Behind the curtain, Mizuno put his hand on Sakura's shoulder…

…and let his lips brush past her right ear instead, murmuring just three words.

"…Maybe next time."

Syaoran heard them well, and he glared openly at the Prince as the two of them got up to do the final scene. Sakura rubbed the right side of her face until it was red—or was that a blush? She put up a smile as soon as the curtain revealed the two of them, and played the part of the joyful bride, but Syaoran could see she was mad. Hopping mad.

That made him feel a lot better, actually.

----------------------------------------------------

"I swear, whoever said that Mizuno guy is, and I quote, 'a quiet and thoughtful boy', must be out of his mind!"

Syaoran ranted with wild hand gestures in the air, walking backwards in front of Sakura as the two of them headed up the street. She wasn't as angry as he would have liked, but right now the old Kinomoto was coming back. Syaoran watched her carefully as she walked with her books hugged to her chest, saying little or nothing instead of getting annoyed at him. He'd have liked the latter a lot more.

"I mean, Eriol already said he didn't have to kiss you, okay, he doesn't, but he goes and _whispers_ something. Sneaky-sneaky. What kind of sicko…" He trailed off as he realized she wasn't really listening to him.

Sakura looked up. "Go on…?"

"No, you don't want to hear it," Syaoran muttered. It was a good thing he'd stopped. If he'd gone on insulting the guy, it would be hopelessly obvious that he was jealous.

"Mm." She nodded slowly and they continued walking, in complete silence this time. It was like the first day they'd met all over again.

The two of them reached her house. Syaoran stood by the gate as Sakura started walking up the path to her door without a backward glance. Then, just before he turned to go, her shoulders seemed to crumple and she looked at him over her shoulder, a smile on her face.

"You really are jealous, aren't you?"

Syaoran stared at her. He'd been expecting something like 'thank you', or 'it's you I want and not him', but not that. "Jealous? Me?" he said too loudly. "Why would I be jealous? I just have to make sure no creeps get to my best friend."

Sakura kept looking at him, and slowly raised an eyebrow.

"See you tomorrow. Don't forget your costume." He spun and stomped off to his own house, mentally kicking himself many times.

_Why do I have to be so touchy about this?  
_

_If it were Meiling I would have told her to slap the guy or something. But with Sakura all I can think about is… is… her _letting _him do it. _

_I'm going soft. Girls are a waste of time and I always thought I could make them do anything. It's as if Kinomoto Sakura is too much for me. _

A faint flicker of a smile crossed his face.

_Well, it's not really her. It's the whole package that comes with her. _

Syaoran let himself into his house and closed the door. A few unfinished props were scattered around his living room, since the props crew had gone to his house a few days ago to work on some of their things.

He slowly stared around the empty room, and then leaned against the wall.

_This is all too much for me._

------------------------------------------------

The next day Syaoran walked into the auditorium and stared in disbelief. Everything was, for once in all the weeks he'd spent here, _clean._ The floors were swept and there wasn't any trash between the seats. The stage had been waxed until he could see his reflection on it.

"Anybody home?" he called. There was no one in the audience, but when he pushed open the backstage door a wave of shouts and shoving greeted him. Syaoran closed the door behind him and let himself be pushed around by the others as he went to talk to Eriol.

"Hey, Eriol."

"I said, move the props for the first scene here! No, not first team, first scene! What!" he asked suddenly, looking down at Syaoran.

"Oh, um… why is everyone so nervous?"

"Why? Why!" Eriol drew himself up to his full height. "Well today is the _dress rehearsal, _Li. Not only will a few teachers and students watch and evaluate, but also this will be our first time to all practice in costume. Do you know how many people trip over ballgowns!"

"Oh. Okay. Sorry then." Syaoran edged away from the director. Eriol was getting more and more stressed by the minute.

"Syaoran-kun! Finally!" Sakura's arm reached out and pulled him to one of the dress-up corners. She was putting on her dress. "Could you just check the sash please?"

She turned to face her back to him, and Syaoran let his eyes trail from her bare shoulders to her slim waist. It was like seeing a fairytale princess step out of a book. "It's fine," he said shortly, smiling at her. "But why are you wearing it now? Aren't you supposed to be the forest girl first?"

Sakura grinned back. "Oh, the props crew did something special to this dress. It's more convenient than changing." Reaching down, she took hold of one of the layers of her skirt and pulled on something. Instantly the gown shrank a little, letting her put on a simple everyday dress on top of it.

"Great," Syaoran said unenthusiastically. "So, when's it starting…?"

She put a finger to her lips—Shh—and Syaoran listened carefully. Outside, the theme music began. He peeked out from behind the curtains and saw a handful of teachers and students sitting in the audience.

"Crap!"

"What?"

"Oh, one of my old enemies came to watch." Actually, one of his ex-girlfriends.

Sakura let the subject drop and stood in a corner of the room, shifting her weight from foot to foot as the first few cast members tromped onstage.

"Syaoran?"

"Yeah?"

"My birthday's the same day as the musical."

He turned and grinned at her. "Really? What are you going to do for it?"

"Nothing, actually," she said. Her voice was very nervous. "I thought of just staying home with maybe just you and Tomoyo and Meiling. We could watch a DVD and stuff."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Syaoran, I'm scared."

"I know."

"What am I going to do?"

He walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You're going to show them how good you really are. And don't say, 'Syaoran-kun, you're touching me again.'"

She laughed, but he looked down and saw her hands shaking.

"You're really that scared, huh?"

She nodded. "I can't make them stop."

He reached out and then hesitated, but then made himself go on. One hand came to rest on Sakura's, just there to stop it from shaking. It worked, and technically he wasn't really holding it, but it still made him feel a bit embarrassed. Syaoran drew back his hand.

"No, I need it," she said quickly.

He looked up at her, but she was staring distractedly at the stage, and he realized she couldn't really feel anything anyway, not right now. So he pressed her fingers down to keep them from shaking, and they stood that way for a while.

-

"That's right, princess. Closer, come closer!"

Syaoran watched from stage left as Sakura walked up to the spinning wheel as if in a trance. She was good. Maleficent, disguised as an old woman, started singing one of the songs they'd added in, and he saw Sakura reach out to prick the spindle. As the song ended and she slumped backwards into a bed, some applause came from the audience. They liked Sakura's acting too.

In the next scene, every single guest and royalty in the castle fell asleep. A few scenes later Mizuno battled the dragon, with every single member of the drama club crossing his or her fingers in hopes that the papier-mâché wouldn't fall apart. The end of its tail broke off, but otherwise it stayed intact and Eriol sighed with relief.

Then next came the Tower Scene.

Syaoran told himself that he wouldn't be jealous, that he wouldn't even watch, but everyone's eyes were drawn irresistibly to the 'happy ending'. Still watching from behind the curtains, he saw Sakura's sleep-smile falter just a bit and he knew she was getting nervous about it too.

"…My dear Aurora!"

Both Syaoran and Sakura tensed—Syaoran readying himself to throw anything potentially damaging at the guy, Sakura readying herself to get up and punch him in the face—but neither of them expected what came next.

Before the curtains could close, before Syaoran could kick him between his legs, and before Sakura could peek and see it coming, the Prince leaned down and, in one swift motion, kissed her full on the lips.

The (small) audience gasped.

The curtain closed on them.

Syaoran froze.

Sakura opened her eyes and pulled away quickly.

The Prince grinned, straightened up, and went on to get ready for the next scene.

No one really understood why during curtain call the Princess seemed to have tears in her eyes and the Assistant Director never showed up, but somewhere in the world two people were very, very unhappy.

------------------------------

Walking home in silence, again.

Syaoran stared blankly down at his feet, for once too stunned to say anything. Sakura walked beside him, chin held up though her face was unusually pale.

And neither of them said anything. That is, until they got to Sakura's gate.

She opened it, walked in, closed it behind her, and then leaned against the gate. She looked up at him and said, "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?"

"For being all grouchy on you again."

"Well, I…" Syaoran looked down. They both knew very well she wasn't apologizing about being 'grouchy'. "I'm the Assistant Director. I have to take care of everyone. I should have done something… when he… did it."

"But it's not your fault!" Sakura choked out. "I mean, I should have seen it coming. I should have opened my eyes and slapped him in the face."

"Oh. No, it's okay, it's nothing." He looked away and started up the road. He didn't feel like talking about this, especially because he'd just seen it happen and he hadn't _done_ anything.

"So you don't care!" Her voice was angry now, but he didn't turn back.

He sighed instead. "I do care, Sakura. It's just… it's not me who was kissed, right? You're mad and I understand that, but it's not my business."

"That's a pile of crap and you know it," she shot back. "Why can't you just admit for once that you have _feelings? _Why do you always have to be the bigshot popular cool kid? Why can't you just admit you were _jealous!"_

"All right already!" He turned and was back at her gate in four big steps. "Let's say I'm jealous. Let's say I'm mad! Let's say I'm in the mood to beat someone up right now! What difference does it make!"

She was crying now, and he wasn't surprised—she'd been holding in angry tears since the curtain call. "Of _course_ it makes a difference!"

"No, it doesn't, because nobody cares about my feelings anyway!" he shot back. It was a stupid argument, but he had nothing else to say.

"Oh, and so you're Mr. Sensitive now! You don't even notice when I'm crying on the phone," she whispered savagely.

"Why the hell would you cry on the phone!"

"See! That proves you don't listen! You don't care! You don't care about _anything; _I bet you don't even remember how sad I was when I told you my _family_ wasn't coming home for my_ birthday_!"

"Well I'm always supposed to be the cheerful one, the happy one, the carefree one! Can't I be jealous too without my friend jumping on me for it!" This was stupid. This was stupid, and they'd regret fighting, but he still wanted to do it. He'd wanted to yell for the longest time.

"All right, let's say you're jealous." She was breathing hard, and Syaoran noticed that she was too mad to cry now. "Let's say you're jealous! Why the hell would you be jealous anyway, Syaoran-kun!"

"_Because!" _he shouted as loud as he could, and then he stopped and leaned heavily on her gate, just breathing. "Because…"

He looked up at the same time that she did, and her eyes caught and held his. Syaoran straightened and Sakura stepped forward, the two of them standing as near to the opposite sides of the gate as possible.

_This is it, I guess._

"It was my first kiss," she breathed, so soft that he had to strain to hear it.

"I care about that, too," he said. And then it happened. Time stopped and everything became a whirl of color except for the two of them, tightly gripping the gate with their hands because it was the only thing they could hold on to.

Syaoran bent to complete the picture, and just before their lips could touch he opened his eyes and looked at her, really looked at her.

Traces of tears were still fresh on her cheeks, and her eyes were gently shut, face tilted upward just a little for what was to come. He watched her. She noticed that he was taking a little long, and smiled expectantly, patiently, innocently.

And he realized that he couldn't do it.

With that thought the colors stopped spinning and Syaoran stepped away from the gate as if it had burned him.

_Not here, not now. Not yet._

Sakura's eyes opened and he caught a glimpse of them—startled, disappointed, sad—before he turned and ran.

…_Too much for me…_

**I'm going to... hide from you now. Ja ne!**_  
_


	8. Different Versions

**I'm sorry it took so long, but school was annoying this week. Well, it's annoying every week. Anyway, here you go--8th chappie, and I'm hoping to get more reviews, at least 6 please. :D**

**  
Chapter 8: Different Versions**

RING RING

At almost exactly 6:26am the phone rang, its shrill tone cutting through the silence of Sakura's house, but by this time she'd gotten used to waking up early in the morning. Syaoran's calls—they came almost everyday, since he was probably the most forgetful/irresponsible person she'd ever met—took the place of her alarm clock.

She reached for the phone and tucked it under her left ear, trying to hold up her math book for some last-minute cramming. "What do you want?"

"…Hey."

She sensed the hesitation in his voice and got annoyed. _There. See, he started it. Yesterday I decided we'd pretend it never happened, and I even began the conversation like nothing ever happened, and then he goes and ruins the whole nothing-happened thing._

"You're supposed to say, 'I need help with number 25', but I guess that's good enough," she said evenly. She was giving him a hint, telling him that they didn't need to talk about the almost-kiss just yet. That is, even if she was extremely, uncontrollably, uncompromisingly mad at him for making it an almost-kiss.

It would have been perfect. Atmosphere? Check. Drama? Check. Mutual Attraction? Check. And hadn't he ever watched that movie, where he was supposed to close the last 10 of the kiss or something? (A/N: Have you watched "Hitch"?)

She'd had her eyes closed and the only way she knew he was moving was the rustling of his jacket. She'd heard it, all right, a quick rustle as he leaned… backward, stepping away. Then a breath caught painfully in his chest, a rushed turn—she'd opened her eyes just to see him running away without a backward glance.

And she'd felt… mad. Not sad.

He laughed. "Nope, I actually get it this time. Anyway, I just have to say, I'm going to be at an overnight camp thing, so I won't get to go to practice later."

If she was listening hard she would have noticed how his voice was clipped and falsely cheerful, but she was too shocked to care just now. "W-wha? Overnight camp?"

"Mm-hmm!" He sounded relieved. _He's running, again._ "I signed up for another extracurricular thing and we're going to go help out some poor people build their houses."

She laughed a little. "That's so not like you…"

Inside she started to worry. The last time she'd gone to practice without Syaoran, Ami and the others had all laughed at her. Now that Ami was gone, were they still making fun of her behind her back?

"Yeah, I know, but all this stuff's good for college people. Hey, don't worry. Tomoyo and Meiling will go to practice with you."

He'd known what she was thinking. Sakura smiled.

"Okay, whatever. Just make sure you don't turn into a complete teacher's pet."

"Sure, with a C in biology? See you, Sakura."

Her voice softened. "See you…"

He paused and she heard him breathing, waiting for… something. But then he put down the phone and that was that. Sakura nodded to no one and went on getting ready for school.

-------------------

Luckily, Syaoran tried hard to make things go back to normal between them. Sakura didn't feel uncomfortable at all, except when he made a random joke about a girlfriend and boyfriend. The day seemed short—maybe because he was leaving in the afternoon and she wouldn't get to walk home with him.

_It's good, actually, _she thought to herself. _If we went along to the gate again we'd… remember. _

At dismissal time Sakura watched Syaoran and the rest of the campers pick up their duffel bags and start collecting in front of one of the school buses. She felt like going over there to say goodbye, but it would be uncomfortable with everyone there, and she'd look like his girlfriend or something. Sighing a little, she turned to go to the auditorium as usual, where Meiling and Tomoyo would meet her.

"Sakura-chan!"

She recognized his voice, of course. Sakura turned, grinning in spite of herself, and put her hands on her hips.

"Back so soon? I didn't think you'd miss me so much to go camping for just thirty seconds," she called as he ran up.

Syaoran rolled his eyes and grinned at her. "Goodbye to you, too," he said, smiling openly.

"Bye. What time are you guys getting back together?"

"Oh, just in time for practice." They stood for a while, a little awkward. Sakura knew if it were Tomoyo or Meiling he'd have no problem giving them a big friendly hug, but things were too tense with Sakura for him to try that now.

Finally she stuck out her hand with a smile.

He grinned back, took her hand out of his pocket, and shook hers. Just before he turned to leave she felt something crinkly in her palm, and looked down to see he'd slipped a note into it when he shook her hand.

"Bye! Bye!" the campers called, making funny faces at the other students from the bus windows as it drove away. Sakura stood in the middle of the road. This was the second time she'd have to watch him go.

----------------------------------

Being perfectly sane, with a perfectly normal memory, Sakura did remember exactly what had happened by the street that afternoon. But right now, sitting backstage fingering a broken rocking-horse prop, her own thoughts overwhelmed her. She saw the garden gate in different versions, each time different, and she watched them all over and over again in her mental cinema just to torture herself.

It only confused her more, of course. That was the thing with being in love. Your heart twisted things up so you couldn't see the truth if it walked up and spit in your face.

_Let's see, _Sakura thought, as if she were thinking about a completely different person's life story. _There are five afternoons. Which one was true?_

"Sakura?"

Two voices said her name at once, and their owners stopped suddenly, staring at each other across the shadowy prop room. Sakura looked up to see Eriol and Tomoyo, but they'd forgotten she was there. Tomoyo's face suddenly crumpled.

Eriol stepped forward. "Tomoyo—"

Tomoyo looked away. Sakura watched.

Eriol stopped and turned abruptly, calling out someone's name. Tomoyo exhaled shakily and smiled at Sakura.

_Even her smile is sad_.

She didn't say a word about that prop room ever again. It was better to stay away from painful conversations.

Of course, painful thoughts could never be stopped.

VERSION 1

She waited for the kiss.

Of course, when you were waiting for someone to kiss you, it was a little rude to open your eyes and check to see if he was still going to do it. But she had to. He was just taking too long.

In the end, it was a good thing she had.

While she'd been standing there, fingers tightly gripping the gate, face turned up slightly with her eyes gently closed, he'd already leaned away, his eyes on the ground. Sakura stared at him, but…

…but he seemed to have changed his mind.

She was about to forget it, close her eyes and wait again as if she'd just caught him at a bad time, but then he looked up, straight at her. And she saw what he was thinking, as clear as day.

_I can't._

Sakura watched, dumbfounded, as he turned and started up the road back home. With him went all the colorless dreams that had only been painted in now, all the little hints that had set her heart racing and her mind in denial. It just wasn't right.

She clenched her teeth.

"So that's it?"

He stopped walking. She glared fiercely at the back of his shirt.

"That's it? You're going to just pretend it never happened?"

She waited for him to hesitate and then turn around and apologize, maybe even creating another perfect moment, but that was the thing with perfect moments. They never happened twice.

Syaoran put his hands in his pockets and walked away.

Sakura watched him go, successfully holding back her tears. "I hate you."

VERSION 2

As she heard him come closer and closer, leaning down swiftly and softly just like in the movies, her body tensed. She remembered Mizuno-kun, how it had all happened so fast, how no one had expected it. And how she'd hated him, and herself, for it.

She remembered everything she'd done with Syaoran, and compared it to what girls usually did with the boys they liked. He'd been to her house, but he'd made a big mess and he'd passed out on her floor. He'd taken her to the mall, but only to buy some materials at the bookstore, where he humiliated both of them by playing a prank on the cashier clerk. He'd rescued her from Ami, but only because he was the assistant director and Eriol had told him to keep order in the auditorium in case the teachers got upset.

It was the farthest thing from romantic.

Sakura's heart beat wildly; she could actually feel him now because of how near he was.

She remembered hitting him on the shoulder with their hardcover history book for forgetting to return her homework after he'd borrowed it.

If this happened, she'd never be able to do it again without feeling awkward.

She remembered all the teasing they did, sort of a confidence booster for her now. The taunts never really hurt.

If this happened, she'd never be able to do it again without feeling awkward.

She remembered the both of them nearly passed out on the couch, the tops of their heads touching and their feet dangling over the armrests after a hard day's prop making.

If this happened, she'd never be able to do it again without feeling awkward.

Everything, _everything_ would change.

Sakura's eyes flew open. His face was an inch away, and she stepped back from the gate, leaving him on the other side. She felt as if the world on her side was pulling her away.

"I…"

His eyes opened and he stared at her with hurt in them.

_I can't!_

_I can't risk it!  
I can't do it!  
I can't think of it!_

_I can't…_

Lightning-fast, his expression changed from hurt to angry. She almost gasped when he scowled at her.

He'd never been mad at her before.

"So that's it?"

She couldn't answer him.

"You're leaving it there?"

Sakura opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

"I…"

_I know._

_Me too._

What was wrong with her voice? It was gone, lost with all the daydreams she'd secretly entertained. They'd had something to do with happy endings and holding hands.

He clamped his mouth shut and turned quickly, fists clenched at his sides. For a second he just stood there, breathing heavily. She knew this was her cue in their little drama. She was supposed to jump over the fence and into his arms, or something like that.

But Sakura had had enough acting.

She watched him go. He saw an empty can in the middle of his path and kicked it as far away as it could roll. Both of them looked away from it, as if that would make it disappear into some gutter forever.

VERSION 3

For a moment she felt like pulling away at the last second, just to be safe and stop everything from dissolving into the bright lights that he brought, but they always said you had to be brave when you were in love.

So her lips met his, and it was wonderful in the way that kisses are when you like the person who's kissing you…

…but.

He pulled away, eyes sparkling, and she saw how unbelievably happy he seemed to be…

…but she looked back at him with the beginnings of a smile on her face and realized that her worst fears had come true—everything was different now.

"I…"

"It's okay," he said quickly, and she felt her heart ache—he _cared_ about her—because it seemed like she was the only one who realized things were different.

"But…"

There. His grin flickered and she looked down, afraid of what was coming next. She could have kept quiet, she could have let everything go on with that awkwardness (because he didn't mind that anyway), but Sakura had always been honest.

"What now, Syaoran?"

He blinked. He still didn't understand. But she knew—because she'd blinked and she'd seen him as something else, different from the Li who poked around in her fridge without asking and called her up at the wildest times to ask about homework. Things like kisses couldn't happen, not between partners-in-crime-ready-to-kill-each-other best friends like them.

"What now…" he repeated, the words starting to sink in. Would they get together? Would they hold hands in the corridors and automatically be coupled for school dances?

"..I…"

_I've ruined it. _She took a step toward him but he was looking to the side, obviously distracted now by what she'd mentioned. _I've ruined it, he was so happy!_

Still, she knew she couldn't have gone through the rest of her life pretending that things were the same, because after this, she'd either want all of him or none of him. And desires like that weren't made for best friends like them.

"I… don't know," he said simply, looking back at her with eyes full of fear.

VERSION 4

She turned away just as he did, and that made her turn back to stare at him. Both of their faces registered shock, and then slight relief. _You were going to give up on this, too?_

But they still had to keep talking. Sakura's body was half-turned to her home, half-turned to him and his half-turned body. He put his hands in his pockets, and she slowly raised her left hand to chew on a thumbnail.

"I'm sorry."

He said it first, and she would have thrown herself into the sea for him for saying it.

"I'm sorry, too," she said, barely unable to keep herself from crying it out. Immediately his face softened into a relieved, happy smile, and she knew hers did too.

"Oh, Sakura," he whispered, his hands drifting to the gate latch. They stopped with his fingers resting on the bolt.

She looked down at it, hesitating, knowing this meant the world. Then she looked up, meeting his eyes, and the last of her fear evaporated.

Syaoran slid open the latch and took a step forward, and then his arms were around her. Sakura felt herself lean on him for support, closing her eyes and exhaling a deep, shuddering breath. She felt him do the same, one hand on the back of her head and the other around her waist.

They stood that way for a few moments—holding each other up—surprised by how well they fit together.

She could never, ever get tired of it. She felt safe, untouchable, as if she was laughing at the rest of the world from outside the fishbowl. And what she loved most was his breathing, how his chest rose up and down, slow, smooth, regular.

It could have been two minutes or two years, but eventually he slowly drew back, hands resting lightly on her hips. She played with bits of his sleeves, rubbing them between her fingers.

His eyes, unreadable, stared straight into hers, as if they were searching for something there. Her eyes strained to see in his what he was looking for in hers.

"What now?" she finally said. They couldn't break eye contact.

"Hmm, you didn't read the script," he joked, and she smiled shyly, knowing what was coming next.

Syaoran leaned down and touched his lips to hers. Her eyes were still open and she closed them, her hands coming up and her fingers lacing together at the back of his neck. He kissed her slowly and softly and then drew back and lifted her in the air by her waist as if they were in some ballet. Sakura landed on her toes and he kissed her again, just a short one, before smiling, happier than she'd ever seen him before. It was all bright and beautiful and sweet.

Too bad it never happened.

--------------------------

Four versions, all of them different. Some were good, some were bad.

But all of them were very, very far from the truth.

…Which was?

Sakura got up and squared her shoulders, pushing back the curtain and stepping out onto the stage to get ready for her part. She went through the scene absentmindedly, still thinking of the sad and boring and stupid truth.

_Oh, I almost forgot._

She put her hand in her pocket and took out the crumpled-up note, bracing herself before reading it because there was a chance it was something dramatic and sweet that would make her break down in tears. And part of her wanted it to be.

But all it said was, **_Please copy Biology notes for me._**

VERSION 5

A boy and a girl stood at a garden gate. The girl was on one side and the boy was on the other. Both had just argued fiercely with each other, though usually they were best friends.

The argue faded out in the way fights usually do. In its place came an uncomfortable and unfamiliar silence, almost drawing the boy and girl together, 'just like in the movies'.

But this was the truth, remember? It wasn't a movie.

As suddenly as he'd stepped closer to her, the boy jerked back from the girl, giving her one last look and then running back to his home, away from confusing uncomfortable unfamiliar silences.

And the girl stood, watching him run away and thinking that this time he'd chosen to go.

* * *

**yawn Yeah, nothing really did happen, but in my opinion version 4's the best, so yeah.** **The next chapter is going to be good--it's all about NEWS. NEWS, hmm, what could it be about:P **

**REVIEW! PLEASE!**


	9. She Has News

**GUYS! I'M SUPER SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG! School was hell. There was absolutely no time to write... except in class, of course! So here's chapter 9, written during Math, Filipino, Biology, Composition, and a few other subjects.**

** I'm also holding a contest. Read through the whole chapter and you'll find the details at the end. **

**Don't forget to review!**

**

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Chapter 9: She Has News**

_Admit it, you ran away again._

Syaoran stared at the seat in the row in front of him, noting how it was shaking violently from the antics of its occupants. Beside him with her knees tucked up to her chest was a pretty, primped-up cheerleader, scowling at him for some reason Syaoran couldn't remember.

_Well, it would have been even more awkward if I'd stayed._

"So you're just going to sit there and rot?"

He slowly turned to look at the cheerleader. Her name was… Mandy? He wasn't sure. She was an exchange student from America, with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a very bad Japanese accent.

Syaoran shrugged. Mandy rolled her eyes.

"Listen, I sat here because I thought you needed someone to talk to," she said.

Oh, now he remembered! He'd flirted with Mandy before, at someone's party, where she had had a boyfriend and hadn't looked at him twice. Parties… _I haven't been to one in ages._

"So anyway, my friend's having a party at her house tonight! Wanna come? You can bring anyone."

Syaoran grinned. "Anyone? I can go with anyone?" He wondered how Sakura would answer if he asked her to go to the party. She'd probably choke and look at him in disbelief.

"Sure, you can go with anyone you like. Just ask." She was edging closer now, batting her eyelashes ridiculously. Syaoran tried not to look put off.

"Uh, okay. I'll bring a friend or two," he said hurriedly. Her hand rested gently on his arm and then crept up to his shoulder, gripping folds of his shirt.

"You are too cute, you know that?"

Syaoran shook his head. _Oh God, she thought I was flirting with her._

She laughed. "So cute." One more second and she'd be—

Syaoran took a deep breath and gently but firmly pushed her back into her place. "I'll come," he mumbled, putting his hands back in his pockets and looking out the window. Mandy sat back speechless, and then harrumphed and got up to go sit with her friends.

_It's just as well, _he thought, glancing after her. _I'm a goddamn coward._

That afternoon… it would have been so easy to just do it and make the both of them happy.

But he hadn't.

Some suspiciously familiar noises were coming from the seat row behind him, and Syaoran put his knees on the chair and turned to look at the couple sitting intertwined with each other. Someone yelled at them to get a room, but he sat transfixed as they moaned and chuckled and did God-knows-what-else.

_It's easy for everyone else. The boy wanted it, the girl wanted it. The boy doesn't usually back out at the last second._

Deep down he knew he was glad he hadn't done it there and then, because it hadn't been right. But that didn't stop him from thinking it.

_That didn't even make sense._

"Dude, do you mind?"

"God, what kind of freak watches people make out…?"

_I should have kissed her._

Syaoran took a deep breath as their bus drove up in front of the school's front gate. He stared out the window and scanned the crowd of students for Sakura's face, wondering if she was waiting for him.

_See, I keep thinking things like this, about her, but I still—can't—do—it. _He gritted his teeth as the bus ground to a stop and he got up to get off it. _It's like I'm scared. Which is really stupid, considering that I've dated tons of girls before this one._

_None of them were like this. _

"Li-kun!" Three voices greeted him the moment he stepped clear of the bus doors, and he grinned as Meiling ran over and gave him a big hug. Over her shoulder he saw Tomoyo and Sakura come up, smiling.

"Aww, so you missed me that much?" he teased, hefting his bag over his shoulder. "It was just one day."

Meiling glared up at him. "I bet you forgot to get that book I wanted." She'd asked him to pick up a book she'd reserved long ago, last time they had a camp-out.

Syaoran winced. "The bookstore you talked about was closed, so—" He dodged when she tried to hit him and hid behind Tomoyo. "Have mercy!"

Sakura grinned down at him. "Hey there, coward." …Down at him?

"Hey, princess." He raised an eyebrow. "Are you taller than me, or what?"

"What." She pointed down to her shoes. "Check these out."

He looked down, past her school uniform skirt, at a pair of strap-up white sandals that must have had 4-inch long heels. "What are those stilts for?"

She shrugged. "There's a scene in the musical where I'm supposed to have grown taller, so I'll just slip these on."

"You can _walk_ in those!"

Sakura laughed. "I'm supposed to even 'twirl', if Eriol's picky," she said, starting to walk towards the auditorium. Syaoran dumped his duffel bag beside the gate for them to pick up later and then followed her, relieved to see things were back to normal. The musical was the **next day**, and he didn't want anything else to be complicated.

She peered at his face. "Why do you keep smiling?"

"Oh." He laughed. "Nothing, just glad to be back, that's all."

She rolled her eyes, and then smiled, her expression softening a little. "Yeah, it's glad to have you back," she said quietly.

(He knew the tone of her voice was going to get things messed up. He changed the subject before she could say anything else.)

"So did you guys get it perfect yet?" Syaoran pushed open the door of the auditorium and held it open for her, nodding to a few of his friends as they walked backstage.

"No, not really," she said, shrugging. "I mean, I have everything memorized, but sometimes I just get tired and start messing up."

"Then you'd better get lots of rest before the big day, ne?"

She glared at him. "It would be easier if _someone_ didn't call me two hours before school starts."

Meiling and Tomoyo came into the dressing room, looking very excited about something. "Sakura-chan, look what they did to your dress! Oh, it's _perfect,_" they sighed as Eriol brought out Sakura's princess dress again. At first Syaoran didn't notice anything new about it, but the delicate frosted-pink rosebuds embroidered all over the skirt made Sakura gasp.

"Oh my gosh! Who did this?"

"Erm… umm…" Eriol's eyes met Syaoran's. "Ami-san."

Sakura made a face. "_Ami!_ Why in the world would she want to do that?"

"I think she wanted to prove she had talent in something," Eriol said hurriedly, but Syaoran started to grin. Had he assigned this extra work to Ami because of bullying Sakura?

"Oh, then I've got to say thank you. It's perfect, ne Meiling, ne Tomoyo?" Sakura looked up.

"…Tomoyo?"

Their friend was nowhere to be seen. Sakura quickly turned to look at Eriol. "What the hell…?" Syaoran heard her mutter, and then she shook her head. "I guess we'll have to start practice, then."

"But Tomoyo said she really wanted to see this!" Meiling said sadly.

Syaoran dumped his clipboard into her hands. "I'll go get her."

"Tomoyo-chan? But she could be anywhere, right?"

"She can't have gone far. She doesn't run too fast." He nodded to Eriol. "I'll be back, Eriol. Sorry."

"It's no problem…"

Syaoran ran out onto the stage and then jumped off—it was shorter than going all the way around through the dressing rooms and props cabinets. Tomoyo was making her way up to the auditorium door, hugging her books to her chest.

He watched as a guy bumped into her as she was reaching for the doorknob. "Watch it!" the guy snapped, and Tomoyo glared up at him as if sparks would snap from her eyes this second.

"Don't tell me to watch it, you little punk," she retorted, snatching at the iPod he was listening to. "And stop listening to emo music when you're supposed to be helping them."

_Whoa. Tomoyo has a temper._

iPod-guy stared at her and then nodded slowly and backed off as if he was talking to a crazy person. Tomoyo sighed exasperatedly and tried to tug open the big double doors, pulling on the right door handle instead of the left. It didn't work, of course, since the right door had been broken since two years ago.

"God, this stupid—door—won't—open—of—all—the—days—" she was muttering as Syaoran quietly stepped up and pulled the left door open.

"Oh. I forgot." She shook her head and then sighed again. "Stupid, stupid, stupid…" Without a backward glance at him, Tomoyo started stomping out, the breeze whipping her long hair around her face so she couldn't see.

"Oh, for the love of—" She had to drop her books and pull back her hair in a ponytail before continuing on. Syaoran leaned against the doorframe and grinned.

"Aren't you supposed to say thank you if someone opens the door for you?"

Tomoyo whirled around with a scowl and then saw him. "Oh." Her face blanked. "It's you. Sorry, Li-kun. I have to go now."

He shook his head. She frowned.

"What do you want! I have to get home!"

"What's up with you and Eriol?"

That question caught her off balance. She stared at him in disbelief and then started spluttering and blushing and looking anywhere but at him. "How did you—where did you—what do you want—did he…?"

Syaoran shook his head. "It's _obvious, _Tomoyo."

"Oh." Her face crumpled. "Yeah, I guess it is."

She actually paced back and forth a few steps and then sat down on a bench outside the auditorium. Syaoran sat beside her.

"Is it ok if you tell me the whole story?"

She looked up. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess so." Another sigh. "It's just… hard."

"What is?"

"To talk to him after… he did it."

"Did what?"

She laughed, but it wasn't a happy one. "I'll start from the start."

"A year ago I didn't have my car yet and I was still taking the school bus to and from high school. One day I missed it, and it was the first time I'd missed the bus in my life." Syaoran nodded. Tomoyo was the type to be early and on time.

"So I was there, staring after the bus, when this new student comes driving up in a broken-down old car that looks like it's going to collapse any second." She smiled a little. "He asked me if he wanted a ride. And he looked really scared to ask it, too." The smile faded. "He was different then."

"I didn't like the look of his car, but I got in because it was the only way I could get to school. My friends were all on the bus."

Syaoran nodded. He sort of remembered it. "So he drove you…?"

"Yeah, and the car wasn't so bad, and we talked and found out we had a whole lot in common." She grew a little more excited. "I mean, not big things like hobbies and favorite subjects, but the little things. The type of candy that gets us hyper, the type of person that really annoys us, the CD that we both bought thinking it was crap and then that we both found amazing instead.

"So we talked for a while and we both ended up being late to school. He was one of the first guys to get a driver's license and he wasn't that good yet, so he had to go slow. When we drove up everyone laughed at his car, but we ignored it and said goodbye. Then later on he walked up to me after school and asked if he could drive me home."

Syaoran thought for a moment. When was the last time he'd Erin a driving course? He had around 2 more days to go before he could get his license.

Tomoyo continued. "So we became best friends, and then we started dating. We were really excited because it was like one of those books. Boy and girl become best friends and then start liking each other as more than that."

Syaoran found himself blushing. "And then?"

"And then we fell in love with each other, true love, I think," she said. "I can't even remember it anymore.

"That summer he took me everywhere with him, even on an overnight trip with the rest of his family, and we hardly even kissed. It was just enough to be together. That was what I loved most," she said. "All the other guys were so physical, and it made me feel like I was just a body.

"But it wouldn't last." She shook her head. "I don't think high school sweethearts ever do."

"When summer came to an end we'd already grown apart and we were growing apart more and more each day. I wanted to fix things. I loved him. A lot." She swallowed hard, and it hurt so that tears came to her eyes. "So I tried to keep talking to him and teasing him like we always used to, and every day he'd get more and more distant, and every day it would get harder and harder to keep things normal."

She stared into space. "Like this one time. We used to play at childrens' playgrounds all the time. _He_ would sit on the swing and _I_ would push him. It was really funny and we'd end up rolling on the grass with our stomachs hurting from laughing too hard.

"But one day he told me to get on the swing and then he pushed me, and I sort of knew that was a sign he was different now. We were different."

Her face crumpled. "Do you want to cry?" Syaoran asked. "It's okay." Inside he was cursing himself for not knowing about this. Tomoyo had been his good friend since 7th grade or so, and he hadn't even known…!

"So just when school started he told me that he wanted to end things. That it was too hard to keep going on like this."

Then she did cry, a little, but bit it back so she could continue. "I thought—that we could fix things if we both worked to do it. Because I was trying, and he wasn't. So I went to his house one day and talked to him and asked him, please, to try for me."

"But he looked back at me and told me no, in this completely calm voice that I hated, because he made me sound like I was a kid who didn't understand."

Syaoran couldn't really imagine how it had been like. That summer he'd been in America with his parents, to Six Flags Amusement Park, and now he wished he'd stayed to be there for his friend.

"So I got mad." She smiled. "I got really mad. I told him he was lazy, and a player, and a big fat liar for saying he loved me, and all sorts of other things. And then he said he never wanted to talk to me again, so I left the house. That night there was a batch camp-out and I didn't go so that I could sneak into his bedroom and spray-paint his wall with 'LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE'." She laughed too loud, and Syaoran actually got a little scared. "It was so immature, but it made a big impression I guess."

"So this year when school started he was already 'fine'. And I was 'fine'. So I hid it." She tucked her knees up to her chest and it reminded him of Mandy. "I didn't tell anyone, and neither did he."

"But why are you so mad at him if you loved him that time?" Syaoran asked.

"Because of that day he said no." She stopped, searching for words. "He didn't even blink. It was like he didn't care anymore."

Syaoran shook his head. "I'm sure he did. He's a great guy and—"

"No, Syaoran!" she screamed suddenly, jumping up from the seat. "You weren't there! You didn't see it! You can't make any conclusions from what you see now," she jerked a thumb towards the auditorium, "Because the Eriol I knew was different. Too different."

Syaoran was quiet for a few seconds.

"Um, okay."

Tomoyo opened her mouth to talk and then her knees buckled and she let herself sink to the ground, crying. And for the second time this year Syaoran had to comfort a sad girl outside the auditorium doors.

_But this time it's different, _he thought. He'd been trying to not think about it, but there was no choice.

_If I ever tell Sakura how I feel…_

_Will the same thing happen to us?_

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That afternoon, when they'd finished practice, Syaoran told Sakura the story while they were walking home. Sakura seemed a little distracted, but he told himself it was because the musical was less than a day away.

"…So it was all because they argued as a couple last summer?" Sakura asked him in disbelief. Syaoran nodded. "I guess it was really bad."

"Yeah," she said, carefully. Was she… scared? She looked down and played with a page of her script, folding it and unfolding it in complex shapes. "I guess so. I don't want to go away from my friends and stuff, what more someone I love?"

_Go away?_

"Yeah," he said quickly. "Good thing there's 0 chance of either of us leaving!" He put up a grin, but she didn't laugh or even roll her eyes like she was supposed to.

"…Sakura?"

"Li-kun, I have something big to tell you…"

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**You know, I think you people want to kill me again.**

** Anyway, since I feel guilty for making this big cliffhanger, I'm telling you that... next chapter something big (and GOOD) will happen. The musical. :D Ahahahaha. Anyway... CONTEST! Please join this! I need ideas for one of the upcoming chapters!**

** Okay, so the contest is this: Come up with an idea for a Clow Card and how Sakura is going to capture it (you can just say 'she will use the card to capture the card, which has the power to .' I will choose a winner and yes, the winner's card will be included in the story.**

** So send in your ideas by putting them in your reviews! The chapter with the winner is two chapters away, so you have time. You can send in more than one entry, too. **

**AND DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW:D **


	10. The Problem with Budgets

**Chapter 10: The Problem With Budgets**

"What do you mean, you're going to California!"

He sounded so angry, and all she could do was bite her lip and try her best not to cry today. It was a good thing he didn't know that she'd been hiding this secret for almost a week now.

"What, are you moving!"

There. A question she could answer. "No! God, no," Sakura said. "I'm going to be a sit-in student at this combined highschool-college place for two months, and then I'll come home and decide if I want to stay."

Syaoran looked as if she'd grown two heads. "_If you want to stay—_" He shrugged exaggeratedly. "Oh, yeah, perfectly normal to go to California for a few months during your very last year of high school and miss all the end-of-year fun, just so you can go there again for college!" This was getting a little too hard to talk about, Sakura thought. Syaoran looked almost hysterical. "Well, why can't you just go to the States next year like everyone else is doing for university!"

"Because…" She tried to look strong. "Because my dad wants me to make sure I like the place before he gets reassigned there and has to move us."

It was like she'd thrown the moon over and expected him to catch it. Syaoran goggled at her. His next word came out in a whisper.

"…_Move_!"

Sakura turned to face him and waved her hands. "No, no, don't get worried yet, I still have to decide if I really want to. And I can still say no, and we'll go on living just the way we are now." But there was something else that tugged at her to say yes to her dad, and Syaoran knew it.

"On the other hand, if I go, and they get this new job…" She tried to smile, a little. "Dad and Touya will be home much more. Almost every day. And they'll even have Sundays off, so we can actually go out together."

Syaoran put a hand on her shoulder and shook her, gently. "Sakura, listen. Why would you do this for your dad, who's never been there for you these past years!"

She wished he didn't know her so well.

"What, now he can just tell you to pack up and leave everything behind because he wants your house to be nearer to his business offices? You're not thinking!"

He stopped talking and she realized they'd stopped in the middle of the road, breathing heavily and looking anywhere but at each other. _He's right, _she was thinking.

But then she realized that Syaoran's parents had recently been working extra hard as well. He was living alone almost all days of the week. He knew how it was like. He had to understand.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. He couldn't just accuse her and her parents like that! He, of all people, should understand, should be there for her! He was supposed to be _comforting _her! This was all wrong and it wasn't her fault, it was his!

Sakura looked up at him, eyes blazing. "How dare you?"

This was going to be hard. She never argued with people like this; she was usually the one to step down before things got too messy. And here she was with her so-called best friend, fighting when all she wanted was a hug or something to make her feel better about leaving everything behind.

"How dare you insult me… insult my father? And I thought you, of all people, would understand!"

Now that she'd started, she couldn't stop.

"Do you know how hard it is for me to come home every day and see that no one's there to say hi?"

Syaoran shifted his weight uncomfortably from foot to foot.

"Do you know how hard it is to tell my dad and my brother everything is all right when they call, when _nothing_ is?"

He opened his mouth to talk, but she continued on.

"I want this, Syaoran. I want this because it's a chance for my family to be together again." Didn't he even care? Didn't he even think of how much she was hurting? "I know they haven't been the greatest, but they want to start over, and so do I!"

She stopped and waited, but he seemed to have forgotten what he was going to say.

"You can imagine how much it hurts to have no one at home, don't you?" she whispered. His face was unreadable.

_If he wants it this way, then fine._

"Okay, maybe you don't." She took a deep breath, but it came out as almost a sob. "Yeah, you don't. Because you're tough and all that, right? Because you don't care about anyone except yourself."

She turned, opened the garden gate to her house, and banged it shut behind her. "I'll see you at the musical."

He didn't call that night, or the morning after.

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"**_I know you; I walked with you once upon a dream_**…"

Sakura sang under her breath as she (finally) walked towards the auditorium for her performance. It was helping her calm down, because right now if a person walked up to her and said hi she would have screamed in his face and kept screaming.

_This is too much. This is too much! This is too much, I'm going to die, I'm going to mess up and forget what to say and everything is screwed because they had to pick ME, why ME, I'm not the outgoing drama type, I'm the type to write the script, or work on costumes, or do ANYTHING but go OUT on that stupid stage in front of 10 billion people to SING, oh my GOD I have to SING and oh my GOD I am the PRINCESS!_

She tried not to let herself think because a burst of nonsensical nervousness usually overcame her when she did. Sakura told herself, simply and quickly: I am the princess Aurora in our school musical, and I am going to be fine. She didn't believe one bit of what she was telling herself, but the lie was sort of working.

"Sakura-chan! You ready?" Eriol was waiting for her, sitting on the stage with his feet dangling down like a little boy. For some reason today he was infuriatingly calm and cheerful, losing his temper only when one of the props people dropped a wet towel on his shirt.

"No," she said. Eriol laughed and put an arm around her shoulders, steering her backstage to where the characters were running around vocalizing, the props people were running around trying to pin extra accessories onto the vocalizing characters' costumes, and everyone else seemed to be running around doing their own things. Sakura was lost. She sat down in a corner and played with the embroidery on her skirt, looking up only to glare at someone who was going to try and pin rosebuds onto her hair.

_Too much too noisy too many people and it's hot and stinky_

"Hey, it's your birthday today, right?"

She looked up to see Ami. This was the first time they'd talked after the bullying but Ami seemed to want to forget it completely, seeing as Eriol had given her extra work for picking on cast members. Sakura shrugged.

"Yeah."

"How old…?"

"17."

"Happy Birthday."

"Thanks."

Ami went back to helping one of her friends, who was supposed to be one of the good fairies, and Sakura went back to staring into space. It was the first birthday greeting she'd received that day, other than her dad and Touya's early-morning text messages. Her cellphone had beeped at 6 in the morning, since their current timezone was ahead of hers and they'd wanted to greet their daughter/sister as soon as possible.

_See, _she wanted to tell Syaoran. _They care about me._

But, come to think of it, she hadn't seen Syaoran yet today. Sakura tensed in her seat, her hands freezing on the fabric of her skirt. Where was he? Was he going to leave Eriol alone just because of their stupid fight? Was he going to come and act like nothing had happened? Or would he ignore her?

"Sakura, we're starting in 20 minutes. You need anything?"

"No thanks," she said without looking at the person.

----------------------------------------------

6 minutes later she was still sitting in the same chair, fiddling with the blue ribbon she was going to use to tie her hair, and then Syaoran stumbled into the room. He had two whole bulging duffel bags that left a trail of script pages, hairpins, prop additions, and other odds and ends all over the floor. Sakura pretended that she didn't see him.

"You idiot, you're an hour and a half late," Ami snapped at him. Syaoran would have shrugged (Sakura thought), but he had the bag straps weighing down his shoulders.

"It hasn't started yet anyway," he told her. He walked around the room giving things out to everyone and receiving nasty, why-didn't-you-bring-this-earlier looks in return. Then he stopped in front of Ami and tilted his head to one side.

"Hmm," he said. "Do I owe you anything?"

Ami shrugged. Syaoran dug around in his two bags and then fished out a mutilated paperback sci-fi. "Here. I think I borrowed this from you. If I didn't, it's my uncle's, so you can have it."

Ami tossed the book behind her in disgust, but he was already turning to Sakura. His eyes met hers squarely and held them, and she almost felt like they were communicating telepathically.

From what she could see, he did care, but everyone was too busy depending on him right now for him to do anything about it. He would do something later on, but for now, forget it, Sakura, please.

"I forgot to give this to you," he said, and pulled out a sheaf of History and Biology handouts.

Sakura managed a smile and shook her head. "It's okay. I made copies."

"Oh." He put them back into his bag, smiling too. "Okay." For a moment they kept smiling at each other, each wondering whether the other would say something—which would mean they were still friends and nothing was changed. Five whole seconds passed. Then—

"Syaoran!"

Eriol came in and grabbed Syaoran's shoulders, shaking him until his hair was messed up. Sakura stared. Just a few seconds ago the director had been calm, cool, and composed. Now, with Syaoran here, he was the exact opposite.

"Syaoran! You idiot! You are late! LATE! I told you to be here two, no, three hours ago! You were supposed to help! You brought all the stuff but it's too late to use it! You're so stupid—" He shook him hard, "Stupid—stupid!"

"Um, hey, calm down," Ami said nervously. Eriol turned on her, and Syaoran stepped carefully away as they argued.

"Any idea why he's so uptight now?" Sakura asked.

"Uptight? Isn't he always?" Syaoran grinned back.

"No," Sakura said. "He was perfectly fine just a few minutes ago, so what's wrong with him now? It's like _you're _making him nervous," she said. Syaoran laughed.

And so, for awhile, Sakura let herself be distracted and forgot about their fight the other day. But sooner or later it had to come out, and sooner or later he'd have to apologize, so she decided sooner was better than later.

"Hey." Her voice dropped to seriousness. "Syaoran. Um… about yesterday…"

"It's okay, Sakura," he said, smiling a true smile at last. "I know you were mad and scared, and I'm not mad or anything, so…"

She stared at him incredulously. "_You_ think _I'm_ apologizing!"

His smile faded. "Um…"

_Uh oh. Might as well tell him what I really think._

"Syaoran," she said slowly and carefully. "I think you should be the one apologizing."

That hit a nerve. "What!" he said. "You're the one who screamed at me, told me off! I was just telling the truth—" He seemed to realize that this was definitely not helping things, and stopped in mid-sentence. "Okay. Okay. Listen, please, let's just forget about it, okay?"

Sakura was already shaking her head. "No. No, I can't forget about it, because it's happening," she said. "I have to leave in a few days and I'm fighting with my best friend?"

"Well don't blame me or anything! I don't have any business interfering with your life, you made that perfectly clear, so I won't." He sighed and then hesitated before continuing. "I just want… you to be happy."

Sakura looked up, surprised, but then Eriol was calling them all to stand in a circle and listen to him. Everyone shut up.

"Girls and boys," he said loudly, waving his hands in the air. "This is it. Tonight we will show the world what we've been working on in here, and we have to be prepared to take whatever they say."

Murmurs of approval ran through the crowd of students. He continued. "All I ask is that right now, in these scant moments before our presentation—" Sakura almost laughed at his choice of words, "You people remember that we made this not for ourselves, but for them." He looked very serious. "We didn't come down here every week because we wanted to spend the day getting bossed around by present company, we came down here because we wanted to put on a show and we wanted it to be _good_."

He stopped, looking around. Then, just before the emcee outside onstage announced '…Our High School's Rendition of… Sleeping Beauty!', Eriol smiled.

"So let's make it good. Okay?"

"Okay!" They all shouted, laughing a little at his speech, and then everyone for the first scene filed out of the room.

"The problem with budgets is that most of the time you are on a tight budget because you don't have money, and you would have a fundraiser but then you don't have time. And you would go look for bargains, but you don't have time," Eriol used to tell Sakura.

"So usually, you have a budget and you have very little time, and things just get messed up."

The opening scene started out fine, but towards the end of that scene disaster struck. All of the visiting 'nobles' in the scene had to wear petticoats and makeshift hoopskirts, which were basically made of small hula hoops stitched to the insides of skirt hems. There was no other way to get the effect they wanted.

Sakura was watching from the wings when the 'nobles' started walking out in a group that was supposed to look like they were casually chatting and admiring the baby. Instead, they were talking. Urgently.

"Hurry up, idiot, I have to go pee."

"It's these stupid skirts, I can't do anything in them!"

"Why not?"

"I have to walk with small steps. All of the girls do. Otherwise we'd step on the hoops and roll offstage."

"Hula hoops inside! Who came up with that? Why couldn't everyone just buy normal costume-party hoopskirts?"

"Budget."

As they were saying this, one girl in the very back of the group lifted her foot to step over an extension cable, and brought it down on the skirt hoop of the person in front of her, who tripped and sent everyone sprawling onto the stage floor. This brought up a few giggles from the audience.

"Oh my God," Sakura said, laughing a little. "I hope I don't do anything like that, stupid budget—Syaoran?" For a moment she'd forgotten that they were fighting, but he hadn't. She saw him in the wings on the other side of the stage, right across from her but pretending they didn't know each other.

_Fine, if he wants it that way…!_

As it turned out, the budget was a big problem. The rhinestones started falling off the Prince's crown, the papier-mâché dragon finally did fall apart (Mizuno-kun simply pretended he'd done the killing blow), and the auditorium spotlights stopped working so they had to just turn on the overhead stage light. It gave the last scene a dimly lit, romantic look, though, so Eriol didn't have to get any more nervous.

Sakura was getting ready to go onstage for the final scene when Eriol turned to Mizuno-kun and scared him with a male version of a scream. "You've got green paint on your face!"

"What!" Mizuno touched his forehead and his hand came away with paint. "Crap, it's from the dragon! I helped them carry it off the stage and I guess my face got marked up!"

"Well, you have to wash it off," Sakura said practically, pointing to the small dressing room bathroom. "Over there."

Eriol shook his head. "No, there's no water in that bathroom. The plumbing broke yesterday and the school decided not to have it fixed until next year."

"Why!"

"Budget."

Mizuno made a strangled noise in his throat and turned to run down the stairs and to the main auditorium bathroom. Sakura watched nervously, listening to the narrator and keeping an eye on the stage, as he ran down three steps and then jumped the last two. His Prince-cape billowed upward.

Then suddenly someone was at the bottom of the stairs. Mizuno let out a small cry and Sakura saw him twist as he jumped, but his feet slipped and suddenly he was falling. He hit the ground hard, his wrist banged against the bottom step, and they heard a loud, sharp crack.

Sakura and Eriol looked at each other and ran down the stairs.

"Mizuno! Mizuno-kun! Are you okay!" Sakura was about to shake him but Eriol stopped her and pointed soundlessly to the elbow that was spread out from under his body. Sakura gasped. At least an inch of white bone popped out of the elbow's skin.

"Guys? What the hell? Sakura's on in like, 20 seconds!" Ami came down the stairs and then stopped to bend over Mizuno. She took one look at the elbow and turned to throw up. Sakura wasn't feeling too good herself.

"Sakura," Eriol said slowly, "Get onstage."

"But what are we going to do about—"

"Just get onstage." He didn't turn to look at her, but he was shaking a little. Sakura decided she had to do what he asked.

"Ami?"

"Yeah?" The other girl looked up at her, face pale.

"Get help." Sakura turned, ran up the stairs, and flung herself onto the bed in the tower scene just as the lights slowly faded on.

--------------

Meanwhile, Syaoran had seen the whole thing from the other side of the stage. He quickly jumped down and reached Mizuno-kun just as Sakura left to play her part. Eriol was squatting beside the other boy, rocking back and forth as Ami dialed 9-1-1.

Syaoran gave a low whistle. "What happened to him?"

Eriol looked up at him so suddenly that he stepped back. "Syaoran! Syaoran. I need you to do something for me."

"Sure thing," he said, keeping his eyes on that elbow as if he was expecting it to grow tentacles.

"I need you to take this cape—" In his hands he held the Prince-cape Mizuno had been using, and then Syaoran knew what he was asking.

Syaoran looked at Mizuno. The boy groaned almost inhumanly.

-----------------

"As the brave Prince conquered Maleficent, sending evil scurrying back into its dark corners, the Princess waited in the highest room of the tallest tower for the kiss of true love that would wake her…"

Sakura kept her hands locked on top of her stomach and tried not to fidget, squeezing her eyes shut. She looked calm and peaceful, but inside her stomach was tying itself into knots.

_What're we going to do about it? Who what when how WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO!_

"…And so the Prince climbed, and opened the door to see his heart's desire…"

She heard the stage door open and wondered what the hell was going on. Had they patched Mizuno up that easily?

"…But he…"

The narrator's voice blended on as she heard a rough male voice say, "Fair Aurora, I have come..! What? She sleeps? I am too late, then!" In her anxiety, she couldn't recognize it, and the boy was trying to sound like Mizuno.

_Who…?_

The boy knelt at her bed and put his head on his arms, doing the odd crying scene. Some snickers from the audience. Then she heard him stand and imagined Mizuno-kun with his creepy serial-killer face.

"Alas, I have failed. She is gone. Yet here she sleeps, unreachable by all…"

_Who the hell…?_

"…Let me steal one kiss from thee…"

Sakura sensed warmness above her. She was still.

"…my dear Aurora."

At last she couldn't take it anymore, and she decided to peek just as Syaoran closed his eyes, leaned down, and kissed her.

…_it's…_

Her eyes were open now and she caught a glimpse of brown hair.

_Mizuno! NO! No—_

Syaoran's eyes opened just for a second and they were brown, not white-blue, and then Sakura knew.

…_Can't be…_

They realized what exactly they were doing as the curtains started to swing shut. Sakura found one of her hands clutching his sleeve, and she felt the world around her blur into kaleidoscope color. He was kissing her softly, slowly, as if this was the last one he'd ever get, and she didn't know what to do, but he was so careful and so… _sensual_ that it was perfect. Just perfect.

Then he pulled away abruptly and put a hand on her shoulder. "We'd better get ready for the curtain call," he whispered, helping her get up from the bed. Sakura nodded dazedly and followed him to the middle of the stage, where the rest of the cast lined up beside them.

Somewhere in the background she heard them say her name and Syaoran's, and she knew they stepped forward and took a bow and curtsy; but she definitely wasn't doing it, she was thinking, and thinking hard.

_He _kissed_ me._

_He kissed me!_

He was holding her hand for the curtain call, and then the curtains were drawing closed and then the audience was gone and the cast and everyone else backstage started to cheer loudly. Someone opened big bottles of Coke and Sprite and Eriol said something about a party, right on stage, but Syaoran took Sakura's other hand in his and turned to face her, and there was a circle of silence around them that made her feel warm inside.

"I'm going to miss you," he said, simply, and she smiled and there were tears in her eyes.


	11. What Am I Doing?

** OKAY I'm super sorry guys! I really had so much to do and exam week is starting so don't expect a chapter very soon!**

**BTW, one of the reviewers said it's close to ending? NO WAY. :) Reviews, please. **

**Chapter 11: What am I Doing!**

When Syaoran woke up on that bad morning, he smiled at the memory of musical night. A kiss. Finally. And he got it right this time. Maybe soon they didn't have to be so shy anymore, maybe soon they could be together in_ that_ way, maybe—

Then the next memory came, and the smile drained from his face.

She was _going._

-----------------------------

Sakura woke up at 6 am and stared at the phone long and hard, because it reminded her of him. She didn't know what to think anymore. He'd done something wonderful and now she felt as if… as if she had to do something like that too, just to continue their little drama.

But then she'd lost her chance, right?

_I'm leaving him, _she thought, and only then did it sink in. Her knees threatened to buckle under her, but she made herself go to the kitchen and grab a glass of orange juice.

-----------------------------

_Maybe this is all going to get better somehow. Maybe she'll stay. Or maybe her parents will move back here somehow and we're all going to be happy and normal again…_

Somehow, even as he pulled on some decent clothes and tucked his keys into his pocket, Syaoran couldn't imagine going to school and not seeing her there.

_A few months…_

It was better than moving there permanently of course, but he had a feeling things wouldn't be the same when she came back. There would be new places to talk about, new people…

_Hah, you're jealous, you big idiot._

Syaoran started up his parents' car, tossed his students' license into the glove compartment, and took a deep breath before easing it out of the garage.

-------------------------------

_Everything packed? Yes, here, just the handcarry… oh, almost forgot! _

She picked up the little glass bird and fingered its carved surface, smiling a little. She'd wrapped her favorite ones in newspaper to bring, but this one was going in her jacket pocket. It was too special to hide away all that time, and besides, she needed something to play with on the plane.

_I have to sleep on the plane, _she thought in a way that was almost-but-not-quite practical. _So that I don't start thinking. Or even worse, crying. God._

Then she heard his two short beeps outside and she did grin, because Syaoran's car sounded even more beat up than it looked. And that was saying a lot.

_He always beeps like he's afraid to wake the neighbors or something._

She took both of her bags and clattered down the front steps with her backpack looped over one elbow. Syaoran met her halfway to the car, and Sakura locked the gate before looking around for the tenant who was supposed to keep her parents' house safe while she was gone.

"Going, Kinomoto-san?" A slim and confident-looking woman stepped out from the back door of the house. Sakura had almost forgotten she was inside, cooking something in the kitchen. As she always did with strangers, she felt a little shy.

"Yes," she said. "Thank you very much."

"No problem." The tenant gave them a little wave and then climbed up the steps again. Sakura quickly turned away from the house—no sentimental keep-this-image-in-your-heart crap for her—and let Syaoran help her carry the bags to his car. She was terrified.

"Thanks for driving me," she said, trying to make noise. Syaoran nodded. "It's the least I can do."

They got into the car and drove.

------------------------

At first Syaoran thought about not saying a word, since that would be easier, but then he decided she'd be hurt by that.

_The things I do for love, _he thought, and that made him lighten up a little because it was so cheesy. He kept one hand on the wheel and then reached out with the other and tapped her on the shoulder.

"What?" Sakura looked up at him.

Syaoran grinned. "Let's pretend we're going to the mall."

She smiled a little, and it was a sad smile, but it was an improvement. "I hate the mall."

"Exactly. Which is why right now you'd be telling me all the reasons why we shouldn't go."

She laughed a little, and then nodded. "Okay," she said. "Let's say I told you that I wouldn't buy anything at the mall anyway, because I think looking at different clothes for hours on end is a complete waste of time."

They could see the airport from the road by now. Syaoran talked a little faster. "I would say that all the normal girls I know like to shop and therefore you are abnormal, assuming that you are a girl."

"I would say…" She glanced toward the airport too, and he saw her fingers tighten around her bag strap. "…that you can't just assume all girls like to shop because the only girls you know are mindless sheep, excluding present company."

"I would say you were contradicting your don't-judge-people thing by classifying all the other girls in the world into your newly created 'mindless sheep' category."

"I would say you were using a cop-out to slip past the fact that you are losing this argument of ours."

"I would say this is not an argument but a way to get you to enter the mall so that I can buy you a birthday present."

Sakura turned and looked at him, surprised. "I would say my birthday was yesterday and your present was the surprise party after the musical."

"Then I would say that that was Takeshi's idea all along, and I want to give you a better one."

"I would ask you what this better one was." Now she was smiling in that teary-eyed way people smiled when their friends did something touching for them.

Syaoran stopped the car outside the national airport and took something out from the glove compartment. "I would show you this."

----------------------------

Sakura closed her eyes and prepared herself for a beautiful, thoughtful, perfect gift from the person she trusted the most, and then opened them again and saw a book in Syaoran's hands.

"A book." She said it jokingly so he wouldn't get hurt, but there was no need for that. Syaoran shook his head and pointed to the ribbon tied around the book.

"See this?" he said. "This is so you don't open it until you're on the plane. So you get a surprise." He shrugged and then unlocked the car doors. "That is, unless you cheat."

Sakura tucked the book into her bag, noting how it had been custom-leather-bound somewhere. "Hey, you're the shortcut-taker, not me."

Syaoran helped her unload her two suitcases and then set them up so she could pull them along easily. Sakura watched a little, thinking, _What the hell am I doing?_

_I'm walking away from everything just when things start to feel right._

_But no! It's not that bad! I'll be with my parents…_

Sakura let herself look at his face as he fumbled with the bag handles, a slightly amused smile telling her that he was getting pissed with her suitcase and laughing at the fact that he was pissed.

_Let's face it, _she told herself. _He is the only real family you have ever had._

_What am I doing!_

---------------------------

"Right, let's go then," he said, locking the car and taking one of the suitcases for her. They passed the security guard and went to line up behind all the other people who were going to leave the country that day, but Syaoran was trying to pretend that he was escorting not Sakura but some other person, someone who wouldn't make him sad when she was gone.

Sakura nodded. "Why d'you think there are so many people here today?"

"I think there's some World Cup or World Meeting or whatever that a lot of us are going to," Syaoran said, looking around. There were a lot of college students, and he realized that going with Sakura like this was making him look like her...

…her boyfriend, yeah, that was it.

_And is that so bad?_

_You wish you were. _

He decided to sit down at a nearby bench and Sakura laughed when he left her behind to stand in line alone. She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to one side and gave him an impatient look, and Syaoran wished he could pull out a camera and capture that right now.

_Because soon she's going to be—_

"What? You're the one lining up," he said, shrugging his shoulders. She shook her fist at him and then had to move forward in line, so Syaoran went to show the guard his Visitors' Pass so he could go farther into the airport with her.

"'Morning, kid," the security guard said. "You're accompanying your sister?"

"Oh no, she's not my sister," Syaoran said, smiling.

The guard nodded and winked comically. "Ah, I see. A heartbreaking goodbye, eh?"

_It's all nice when you joke about it that way, huh?_

He tried to look a little hurt. "Yeah. I guess so."

The guard clapped a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. "Hey kid. Don't worry. It's not the end of the world." Syaoran looked up at him, surprised. Then the guard said, "There'll be other girls, 'kay?"

Syaoran smiled and shook his head. "No," he said. "I don't think there will be."

He walked back to where Sakura was standing and knew the guard was watching him as he helped her get ready to leave him behind.

_What am I doing!_

------------------------------

They reached the Waiting Area and decided to get a quick snack, since Sakura's flight was delayed. She ordered a plain hotdog and put her hand into her bag to get her wallet, stopping when her fingers brushed against that book Syaoran had given her. She smiled. What was in it? Maybe it was a story or something that had them? Could Syaoran write? She didn't know. She didn't know a lot of things about him, yet.

"Hey, hurry up!" he called from their seat, surrounded by her bags. Sakura paid for the hotdog and hurried back to eat it while he stared. She laughed.

"You sure you don't want me to get you something?"

Syaoran smiled. "No, I'm not hungry, you're just eating so fast."

Sakura stuck her tongue out at him. "This is how I always eat. You're comparing me to other girls again."

"Nah," he said, a little softer. "I don't think I could ever do that, since you're so different and all."

"Y-yeah." She looked down.

_So maybe we really do have to talk about it?_

_About what? About the kiss, duh, oh my God how can I talk about something like that? Am I just supposed to tell him that it was different from anything I've ever felt before? I don't want to go all mushy on him._

_It's Syaoran, for God's sake._

"Listen, Syaoran, about the musical…"

_Okay, so it just came out. I do not know how I just said that._

He blushed a little, and it was so cute that she felt better. "Yeah… what about it?"

"Wh…"

_What will happen now?_

_Why is it hard to talk about?_

_Why couldn't you just kiss me another time?_

"Where… where was Mizuno-kun?"

"Oh." Syaoran grinned sheepishly. "He slipped and fell, and injured his arm. Remember? So they rushed him to the hospital, and Eriol made me go and play the Prince, so I went onstage and…"

"…And kissed me." Sakura nodded.

They were silent.

_I made things awkward. I always make things awkward. _

_I have to tell him! I have to tell him it meant a lot. I have to tell him… that I like him? Corny._

_Love him?  
I don't know!  
_

"Syaoran, I…"

"Attention all passengers on flight number AT675. Boarding starts now. Please proceed to Gate 7." Sakura shut her mouth and stood up, dropping her hotdog stick as she fumbled for the luggage straps.

Syaoran stepped forward and put a hand on hers. "What were you going to say?"

She looked up at him, into those brown eyes that she'd seen when he'd kissed her, and decided it was too late now.

"I… I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too," he said, and then smiled. "But cheer up. You're going to see your parents, right?"

"Right." She tried a smile, and it worked. "So… I'm going now?"

_What am I doing What am I DOING?  
_

"Yeah…" He stepped forward and hugged her.

-----------------------------

He was acting on impulse, but he could tell she was too surprised to do anything about it or to make everything sad again. It was short and sweet and a simple friend-hug, so it left a smile on both their faces.

"Don't forget to email," he said.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" she said quickly. "My parents said you might be allowed to come stay with us for a weekend if you want." That cheered her up a lot, he could tell, and Syaoran started feeling a little excited.

"Really? That'd be great!" He nodded. "So just email me when I can, okay? Nothing much to do around here anyway."

"Okay."

"Last call for passengers of flight number AT675."

"See you, Sakura." He gave her a pat on the shoulder, smiled, turned, and walked away.

_No kiss?_

_Shut up._

-------------------------------

Sakura bolted onto the plane and walked down to her seat, slamming into the chair and immediately reaching into her bag for the book. Her fingers tore away the ribbon and then it was open in her hands and she was staring at the page she'd opened it to.

It wasn't a book, it was a notebook.

And on every single page, the background was a black-and-white translucent picture of Syaoran and her, with Syaoran grinning widely and Sakura unsuccessfully trying to block the camera with her hand. It was so cute, and so Syaoran, that she had to smile.

Sakura thumbed to the front of the notebook. There was a short note on the inside cover, with the hurried but artsy scribble that she knew to be Syaoran's handwriting.

_Hey Sakura,_

_Don't fall for any American guys. They all watch wrestling and football on Saturday nights, and you'll get bored because I won't be there to make jokes out of those 40-IQ jocks. Right?_

_About the night of the musical…_

_I'm sorry. Okay?_

_--Syaoran_

Sakura closed the notebook and hugged it to her chest, closing her eyes briefly as the plane rolled forward and started to take off.

"Don't you dare be sorry…"

* * *

**Waaaa, exam week here I come. **  



	12. Feeling Special

I know this took REALLY LONG. I'm sorry. I think the next chapters are a little easier.

Author's Note: I have no idea what the time difference is from Japan to California, so let's just say she left in the morning and arrived in the morning. There. Haha.

**Chapter 12: Feeling Special**

Sakura had just stepped out of the long tunnel linking their plane to the airport when a man and a boy separated from the rest of the waiting crowd and ran toward her, visitor's passes flapping up and down on their chests. For a minute she stared curiously at them, wondering why they were smiling and waving at her, and then she realized it.

_Oh, it's Dad and Touya!_

_And I almost didn't recognize them._

The rush of shame that followed was quickly cut short when Fujitaka gave her a big hug and started talking excitedly, too fast to understand, tears in his eyes. All she could see of Touya was a big smile. Sakura stood in the middle of it all with a dazed smile on her face, wondering what the heck she was supposed to do now.

"Oh, Sakura—"

"It's been so long!"

"Now we can…"

"…riding stables here, did you know?"

"And then we can…"

_I don't really… feel anything._

_Wait—_

She thought of Syaoran and then grinned slightly, looking up at her family for the second time. Her dad stood back with tears in her eyes. Her brother was smiling from ear to ear, one of his hands clapped heavily onto her shoulder.

"Well, kiddo," he said suddenly in perfect American-accented English. "You ready?"

Sakura stared at him, and Touya laughed. "Don't mind him," he said, Japanese still as fluent as ever. "He's just showing off his new language."

"I think it sounds great, Dad. Like a real American."

She felt her excitement slowly start to come back as he laughed back and then took her bags. They led her out of the airport, taking care of all the document checks and even buying her a drink. It felt good to have someone else do all the dirty work for her, like opening doors and paying for soda and reminding her to go to the bathroom.

Outside a minivan was waiting for them. It was _their_ minivan, Sakura reminded herself, a minivan so that they could use it to go anywhere… she could ask Fujitaka to drive her anywhere she wanted… if he allowed her, of course.

It wasn't as if she'd been living alone all her life. It wasn't as if she'd never experienced these little things before. But maybe it would have been better if she hadn't, because then she wouldn't miss them. Everyday she thought of how it should be when her family was there, and everyday she reminded herself to wait for the next vacation or birthday or whatever.

But today… _today we have a whole month! (And yes that doesn't make sense but who'll stop me from thinking that way?)_

Sakura got into the front seat and stopped when she saw the iPod and iTrip plugged in, ready for use. She looked up at her dad and raised an eyebrow. "Dad, you use technology now?"

Touya laughed. "It was a rivalry thing. His friend was bragging about how many songs and videos he had, so dad just had to get one with an iTrip so he could brag about how he can play it in the car."

"I see," Sakura said, and then laughed. She buckled up her seatbelt, the car started, and they started to talk.

"So, Sakura, how's school back there?" Touya asked.

"Oh, it's great, I made some new friends and I…" she blushed. "Remember I called and said I was going to be in the school musical? Well, it's over, and I was the lead part."

"Really? That's great! Any guys falling at your feet now?"

She ignored that. "So how are things here?"

"The weather's hotter in the daytime, but I think I like the scenery better," her Dad said. "I mean, San Francisco is a city too, but the suburbs are nice…"

"He can talk all day about that stuff," her brother said. "Oh yeah, did I tell you? I got a spot at University of San Francisco, so I'll be living here and you'll be sick of me."

"That's great!" Sakura grinned. What she remembered from spending time with her older brother wasn't exactly a loving relationship, but a partner-in-crime thing. "So, um, how about the school?"

The two looked at each other. "What school?"

"The school. You know, the one I might study at if we move here?"

It was funny how they thought so differently. Her brother said, "Well, it's a co-ed public school just a walk away from our house," and her dad said, "Maya, I'm glad you're already considering it," and they both said, "But you don't have to think about that just yet."

Sakura frowned. "But I want to think about it." She'd come because there was a chance at them all being together. Now were they telling her it had all been for nothing? "I want to know if this place is worth leaving Tokyo."

"I know it's a hard decision and—"

"Dad. I said, I don't need that help. I just want to decide after I… look around." She nodded. "Is there a problem? I mean, do you guys think we shouldn't live here after all, or what?"

"Well…" her father looked at Touya. "It's because…"

"We should tell her," Touya said. Sakura stiffened. Those four words were always a bad sign.

"Tell me what?"

"Sweetie," her dad said, "I've been offered a promotion if I stay here. That's why now, we're telling you, we are almost _certain_ that we're going to move. But it all depends on you, and we didn't want to say it because you'd be pressured."

"Oh." Sakura's head swam. So everything had been decided for her? "Oh. Well, I won't say no if that's what you guys want! I mean, you make the big choices, and stuff…"

"No, no," he said. "You're our daughter, and we're tired of doing what we want and leaving you with no one to tell things to. You make this decision based on what you want, all right?"

Sakura was quiet. "All right."

_They shouldn't have told me. _

---------------------

They stopped in front of a pretty, two-floor, normally normal suburb home with a front yard and a garage door and everything. When she was younger Sakura had had to travel around with her family and she'd been in many houses; they'd agreed long ago that her bedroom would always be the room on the second-floor looking out onto the street.

She got out of the car and then stopped and turned back to her family, but her dad only smiled. "Go on," he said, unlocking the trunk. "We'll follow you with all the bags."

Sakura nodded and then walked up the steps, already so used to staying in temporary homes that she didn't feel any excitement at seeing her new room. It was the same as usual—cream-colored walls, a bookcase, a bed, a bureau for her glass animals, and a closet. The only different thing was a small but beautiful wooden desk in a corner, with intricate designs carved on its sides and a small cushioned chair to match.

"Did you get this for me?" she asked, turning as her Dad caught up to her outside the room.

"Well…" he smiled. "The house's old owner was actually supposed to bring it with him, but he sold it to us. He said this was the only place it would fit perfectly, under this roof, in that corner by the window." And Sakura looked and saw she was right.

"It's new, but it fits," she said softly, and Fujitaka came up to put his arm around her shoulders and she wondered if she could say the same for herself.

After a few hours of unpacking, they heard a wild knock on the door and then a bang as it was flung open. Sakura had been looking at Syaoran's gift and she stuffed it under a pillow before the whirlwind that was her brother crashed in to see her again.

"So what's up?" He knew she could talk to him more freely than their father, not because she trusted him more but because she never wanted to hurt Fujitaka.

"Touya-kun!" She grinned and stood up to hug him. "My God, I didn't notice at the airport, you're twice as tall as me!" Here under the slanting ceiling, he was a full 2 feet taller, maybe more.

"It's your fault for shrinking," he said, running a hand through his hair and putting his fists in his pockets. That reminded her of Syaoran, so she turned to her window and looked out on the street.

"Do you live here, or at a dorm?"

"Here," he said, pointing to the bike he'd propped up against their mailbox. "And dad's have been nagging me all week about you coming here, saying you would want a friend and all."

"And a college student with absolutely no morals is supposed to be a friend?"

"Hey," he said. "That's soon-to-be-college-graduate to you, kid." She laughed and he bent down to tie a shoelace. "You wanna go out biking?"

"I don't know, maybe later," she said, sitting down on her bed.

"Okay, I'll go downstairs and make a sandwich then." He did just that, clattering around the house so that everyone would know he was there. Touya had always been like that. And he'd always been persuasive like this too, never taking no for an answer. "Later" to him meant "in five minutes".

Sakura sighed and put Syaoran's gift away. She'd have to write in it later, then. It took only a moment to pull on shorts and a comfortable t-shirt that said RUNS END, RUNNING DOESN'T, and then she went downstairs trying to make as much noise as Touya did so she would feel at home in this ordinarily new place.

Sakura's bike was at home in Japan but Touya had an extra one for his girlfriend's little sister and he lent it to her. It had pink and purple streamers on the handlebars, but Sakura climbed on anyway and followed her brother up and down hills, panting and laughing in equal amounts.

"Maybe we should stop somewhere," she said after an hour or so of this free neighborhood tour. "I don't think I can feel my legs."

"Ahaha, broke a nail or something?" Touya checked the street signs and then jerked a thumb left. "There's a park nearby with benches and a basketball court. We can rest there."

She was about to object, not wanting to see any other basketball-playing teenagers who lived here, but Touya was off and Sakura forced herself to keep up, cursing under her breath.

They put down their bikes in one of the car park slots and walked up to the basketball court, where Touya saw a few friends and went to say hi. Sakura headed for the water fountain, noting how there was even an ice cream umbrella-cart here. Everything was so happy-ish and she felt out of place, being the heartbroken emo kid in the middle of all this suburban stuff.

"Sakura! You okay over there?"

She wished he hadn't drawn the attention to her. His friends muttered something and then one of them went to his cellphone, probably texting his sister about the weird Japanese girl who was going to attend school here.

"Yeah!" she said back, adding a few random Japanese words just to bewilder them. Touya shook his head with a snort and went back to fooling around with the rest of the guys, so Sakura walked over to a bench, sat down, and tightened her shoelaces. Her hair was slipping out of its ponytail and she took it off and retied it again, staring furiously down at the ground.

That was when she saw it.

Flickering into existence under the other end of her bench, a whisper of power made her hair stand on end. Sakura tensed and cast a wild glance around. She couldn't possibly show all these people what she was hiding, but at that moment a shimmer of rainbow-pearl made her head spin, and she knew that _something_ was there, whether it was a Card or not.

_I need my staff,_ she thought, glad that her old baton was in her backpack. She hoped no one would look to see her holding a stick with strange wings and gems on it. People around here would probably make some crack about Halloween and tease her for it.

She stood and stepped toward the card, aware that it didn't seem to be defending itself. Maybe this was more of something she'd have to figure out, not battle.

She'd gotten less than a foot away from the card and bent down, confused that it wasn't doing anything, when suddenly a gust of something sweet-smelling tugged at her, and she remembered Syaoran, how he was always smiling a little, how he had to hold his stomach from laughing, how he looked at her, how he'd put a hand on her shoulder and kissed her that night of the musical, telling her somehow that things would be fine, tears welled in her eyes and she wondered what the hell she was doing here—

She stumbled back and the images faded. Sakura gasped for breath, and then shook her head, lips in a tight line.

_So that's how it is?_

That was when the pair of black shoes entered her view.

Sakura looked up with a slight frown, expecting to see some American kid, maybe even expecting him to start bullying her or something, but instead she saw another Japanese boy, looking down at her with surprise on his face mirroring hers.

"Nihon-jin desu ka?" they both asked at the same time, and then he smiled. Sakura smiled back. He wasn't the eye-catching attractive that girls usually went for, like Syaoran, but he had dark hair that curled and, behind a pair of glasses, brown eyes that were deep and dark and mysterious.

She liked that. A little.

And the card, or whatever it was, was gone.

"I can't believe you're Japanese too," she said, relieved now that she wouldn't have to jump right into the whole fit-in thing. "Do you live here?"

The boy nodded. "I moved here a few months ago. My Dad's a professor and a researcher at Stanford."

Sakura stared. "_The_ Stanford University?" Even she knew about that prestigious college, and that only the best of the best were accepted, students and professors alike.

He saw how surprised she was, and he blushed. "Um, minority status, and he went to school around here…"

She didn't stop staring, but it wasn't the Stanford thing anymore. This guy was blushing. _Blushing_. And from the way he looked down quickly to hide his face, she guessed he knew he was doing it.

_He's like me_, she thought. _Trying to hide his feelings, even if they're out in the open._

…_It's cute. _

_(Syaoran!)_

…_I guess._

The thoughts whirling around in her head made Sakura look away this time, and she turned to call out to her brother. One untied shoelace was trapped under her other foot, and all at once her ankles knocked against each other and she was on the ground. Cursing under her breath, she put her hands down on the dirt and got ready to push herself up—

--and stopped, staring as the boy's hand came down a few inches from her face, offering her help.

Syaoran had never done that.

He'd laugh and she'd laugh and then she'd trip him and they'd roll over in the soccer field with Tomoyo and Meiling, shaking uncontrollably, but he'd never actually offered to help her up.

And it made her…

…it made her feel **special**.

"Are you okay?" he said.

Sakura blinked and said, "I'm Kinomoto Sakura."

He blinked back, and then smiled a shy schoolboy smile. "Mashima Yukio."

"Nice to meet you." She reached up, and took his hand.

"Same." He opened his mouth and hesitated, and then she saw determination flicker behind those lenses. "Are you… free tomorrow afternoon, then?"

…_I **like** feeling special._

--------------------------------------

Behind those carefully calculating eyes and his shy smile, Yukio's mind was ticking away, trying to make sense of what his senses had just sent it.

Unless he was blind, or going crazy, this Kinomoto Sakura's baton had just…

…_changed, somehow?_

_What the hell is going on here? _

He'd heard that the stories were getting more and more detailed, more and more frequent, but he'd never realized that they could actually be true, those little-kid tales of kids capturing entities encased in normal-looking cards, defying the laws of physics to boggle all the scientists.

Yukio had never been so determined to know something in all his life.

Yes, his father was a professor and researcher at Stanford, but he'd forgotten to tell Sakura that he himself was a transfer sophomore there, having advanced a total of three K-12 grades at various intervals.

It was near impossible, and Yukio prided himself on being at least an almost-genius, his mind somehow trained to think flawlessly. His dad called him a savant, but he didn't care what it was, only that it made him smarter than everyone else.

He had also been diagnosed with mild autism and had been proclaimed 'likely to overreact passionately', but that was almost a good thing, when he was geared to a goal. He was happy with being a savant. And up till now, it had made him able to think logically through every minute of his life.

Except for today, that almost-imperceptible wave of power, that unbearably cold feeling he'd experienced just looking at something he'd never be able to figure out.

_I have to find out how her mind does it_, he told himself. _I think I can deal with some skinny girl._

Yukio smiled calmly and asked the girl for her cellphone number.

_Just make her feel all right, make her feel… special._


	13. It Hurts

**Chapter 13: It Hurts**

_**Emily Dickinson**_

_**WATER is taught by thirst;**_

_**Land, by the oceans passed;**_

_**Transport, by throe;**_

_**Peace, by its battles told;**_

_**Love, by memorial mould; 5**_

_**Birds, by the snow.**_

Syaoran stared at the poem, one pen tapping against the blank paper on his desk, one hand propping up his head. He'd always been good at tests like this where you didn't have to study, just understand, but right now there was nothing in the world that really mattered to him, except that she was gone.

He'd come to school in a foul mood, having woken up late and discovering that his parent's car had been dented by a bunch of no-good neighborhood kids. And he hadn't been in the mood to joke around with Meiling and Tomoyo, either, especially because they were now treating him like he was something fragile.

"Hey, Syaoran," Tomoyo had said, and something in her tone pissed him off.

"Hey."

"Are you… okay?" She saw him look up at her. "No, I mean, um, that is, if you…"

"I'm okay, guys," he said, shrugging with a smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Okay." Meiling sounded relieved. Tomoyo looked at him with eyes that were worried.

And now he was here in first-period World Literature, trying to analyze their latest Emily Dickinson comprehension test. He knew how the poem was put together, and he knew what everything meant, but the teacher had gone wacked again and expected them to write out their insights in a full 4-6 sentences, as she'd indicated below the essay portion.

The first few questions were easy—most of them were just line-by-line meanings that had taken him no time to fill out. But, as always, the last question made you explain the full meaning of the poem, and Syaoran had so much going on in his head right now that he didn't know if he could write anything—certain unnecessary thoughts might end up on the paper.

He snapped out of his daydreaming and stared down at the paper, pen poised to write.

_She left, she left me behind._

"Five minutes," the teacher called out, and Syaoran flinched and began to scribble away.

_**The poem means that people often don't recognize how important something is until it's gone. **_

There, that was the meaning, now he had to make it 4-6 sentences somehow without letting anything personal seep through.

_**Emily Dickinson's examples stay true throughout the ages—water taught by thirst, birds taught by the snow, etc. We can relate to all of them.**_

That was 2 sentences—meaningless, but at least they took up space.

_**We often take things for granted until they are over, especially at our age since we have so much given to us already.**_

4 sentences. Done. Syaoran reviewed his paper, made sure he'd written his name, and then turned in his paper and shuffled out of the classroom with the rest of the students. He felt empty, hollow, useless, and he knew that the feeling was going to last a long time.

Ironically, he told himself, the poem was supposed to teach him a lesson. Right? Don't take things, or people, for granted. Well he hadn't taken her for granted! He was sure she knew how he felt…

_(But you were too much of a coward to tell her outright, hmm?)_

So maybe that would stop her from even considering leaving him alone here.

_(It hurts. It hurts to know that she could be gone forever without you even saying you were supposed to say, right? Feel it.)_

Oh yes, he could feel it now. She'd thrown it in his face that he never felt what anyone else might be thinking, that he only thought about himself, that he had to act all tough and not admit his emotions.

But yeah, he could feel it now.

_(It hurts.)_

He ran into Tomoyo and Meiling after second period Math, but they started to give him those we-feel-sorry-for-you looks again, so he made an excuse about having to be early to class and then started along the hallway to the Art room. About halfway there he stopped, eyes shifting slightly to the right—

_--the school doors. I wonder what the consequences are for cutting classes. _

He took a step to the doors. And then he turned back and walked three steps along the hallway like a good student.

_What the hell. It's exams soon, so it's just reviews all day anyway._

Syaoran turned and ran out of the school, waiting for someone to question him or maybe even stop him from going, but everyone was inside with no reason to look out the window and see him streaking down the street at a sprint, trying not to make too much noise. The houses were all quiet and empty, and he headed straight for Sakura's.

He stopped at her gate, remembering the tenant, and then quickly made up a plausible excuse about some partnered research paper and continued inside.

"Hello?" He knocked on her door and then pushed it open, hearing someone moaning 'Alfredo, Alfredo' on a TV soap opera. In the living room, the tenant had fallen asleep in front of the television, and Syaoran tiptoed past her to Sakura's room, closing the door soundlessly behind him.

And once he was inside his shoulders crumpled.

_If I was a girl, I'd heave myself onto the bed and start playing emo music and painting my nails, _he thought. But instead he went over to the bureau where she kept her glass animals and wiped off the thin layer of dust that had settled on it.

That was when he saw the notebook.

It was on the floor, half under her bed, and he picked it up and brushed it off. It was pink. With angels daydreaming on white clouds. He almost snickered, thinking of a 10-year-old Sakura writing in a diary like this, and decided that she wouldn't mind him reading it, especially if she never found out. The diary fell open in his hands.

_I HATE TOUYA! he is just SO MEAN he kept TEASING ME and TEASING ME! I keep asking him not to do that but he doesn't care he's just so MEAN sometimes!_

_I had a head ache awhile ago and it was weird because we were doing baton practice and it looked like my baton got longer or something. a halusination I mean._

_The house is empty and I'm here in the kitchen I'm getting kind of hungry too, maybe there's food in the fridge? I'll go check and_

_what was that? _

_I thought I heard something…_

_I think I should call 9-1-1. _

_oh there it is again. where's dad, I'm getting really_

Apparently she hadn't finished the entry, but Syaoran thought it must be the day she discovered she was a card captor. He remembered being introduced to her as a kid, seeing that pale little girl with sandy hair and deciding that she was just a rival, someone he had to get more cards than. He also remembered that she had that Kero going around with her all the time. Where was he now?

Maybe she'd had to give him up…?

Syaoran remembered when he'd turned 16, and things had gotten a little too hard to handle. Today he was supposed to be studying for college exams and writing an article for the school news on being assistant director; if he'd kept all that card captor stuff in his life things would just be complicated.

_So I quit, right?_

Remembering stuff about this didn't feel very good. Syaoran had had to admit that he couldn't handle the secrecy and the magic anymore; everything just felt so out of control for him.

_But I'm usually the one who's always out of control, right? So why did I stop?_

Maybe it was because, after a while, she'd seemed so much better at it than he was?

…But now, he hadn't heard much about card captors or Clow cards or any of that stuff in a while. He was starting to put all of it behind him and that was good, because they weren't kids anymore. And it was also good because he didn't have to be embarrassed any longer…

He opened the diary again, found the last page, skimmed over it.

_I told Kero I made my decision. I think he was sad, but not as much as I am now. It hurts to say goodbye after all these years, but I'll just make myself think of how some other lucky 10-year-old is going to have him there beside her. _

_I don't know what I'll do from now on. They said that whatever you decide, you can't change who you are. I'll still have the staff. But I know that I get to choose now when I can help, and when it's just too much for me to do._

_I feel a little more mature, making this big decision, but I still don't know if I made the right choice… I mean, not having Kero tell me when he senses something? Not having cute little costumes made every so often just for the heck of it? _

_I heard that that Syaoran guy quit a while back. Well, I'm not quitting! I SWEAR! I guess you could say that… I'm going part-time? _

_Crap, I don't know. All I can do now is sit and wait and see what happens next._

_Maybe I'll join the photography club. Or maybe I'll join the cheerleading squad again, if they'll accept me after I quit a few months ago. I need something to take my mind off of these things. _

_I have to move on._

So this was why she'd accepted the position in the play. Syaoran closed the diary and slipped it back under the bed, and then padded out of the room, thinking of how things would have been like if they were still Card Captors now, rushing out of classes and in between outings with friends to go chase some stupid materialized fragment of magic before it went and hurt someone. The more he thought about it, the more he was glad he'd stopped. But still, there was that embarrassment.

_I heard that Syaoran guy quit. Well, I'm not quitting! I SWEAR!  
_

She'd probably thought he was some loser. And maybe he was.

That night, Syaoran dreamed of being chased by giant cards and tall men, and he woke up five times because the nightmare wouldn't go away.

------------------

RING RING

"Hello?"

"SYAORAN!"

"Oh, Sakura, hi!"

"What's wrong?"

"Eh?"

"I know something's wrong. I hear it in your voice."

"No, nothing's wrong, I'm just kind of busy right now watching TV."

"Too busy to take my overseas call?"

"Haha, you know I'm kidding."

"So, what's up?"

"Eh, not much. We're all having a blast here without you, partying and going to the mall and trashing your house and all that…"

"Syaoran!"

"All right, all right. Uhh… well... I think I did something not very nice yesterday."

"WHAT! What was it?"

"No need to get so excited! I… missed out on a few periods…"

"YOU CUT CLASSES?"

"Ouch. Uh, yeah."

"HOW COULD YOU CUT CLASSES HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID TO CUT CLASSES ESPECIALLY NOW WHEN THEY'RE ALL WATCHING YOU AFTER YOU WENT AND ASSISTANT-DIRECTED THE WHOLE MUSICAL THING AND WHAT ABOUT TOMOYO AND MEILING WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO SAY!"

"I'm starting to think it wasn't such a good idea to tell you!"

"No, don't worry, I'll never tell anyone, but COME ON, Syaoran, if you're going to be this big of an idiot over there maybe I should fly back right now and give you a smack on the face to wake you up, ne?"

"Are you doing fine, Sakura?"

"And then I'm going to—what?"

"How are things over there?"

"Oh! Good. The house is really cute, and it's been really fun with Touya. Oh yeah, and I made a new friend!"

"Oh really? What's her name?"

"His name, actually. It's Yukio."

"Yukio?"

"Yeah, he's Japanese too and I met him at the park when my bro left me all alone there."

"Oh. Okay, what's he like?"

"Well, more of the quiet bookworm type of person, so yeah. I'm going to school tomorrow."

"Yeah?"

"…Yeah…"

"You nervous?"

"As usual."

"Don't be. Listen, it's like being on stage. They have no idea what you're supposed to be like, so technically you can do whatever you want."

"Haha, thanks."

"So listen, I gotta go. Now that you're not there to help me out, I have to do all my homework myself."

"That's how it's supposed to be, dimwit. Anyway, see you."

"See you. Don't miss me too much."

"Yeah, like I miss my Biology teacher."

-CLICK-

_Dear Diary, _

_ugh I HATE that Syaoran guy he's just so annoying but then they all seem to think he's so much better than me just because he acts more sure of himself when deep down he's fickle and shallow and he brags like anything! I just hope he stops being that way soon or I'll probably go crazy next time I have to work with him or anything. I mean, not that we have to be friends, but he's just too much for me to handle right now…_

_...and he's kind of cute._

* * *

**So, that's it for today, please read and review!**


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